I 


*x 


i 


:-..- 


&K^^ 

«%^J^A-- 


THE   LIFE 

OF 

RAMON  MONSALVATGE, 

A 

CONVERTED  SPANISH  MONK, 

OF 

THE  ORDER  OF  THE  CAPUCHINS. 

WlfM 

AN    INTRODUCTION, 

* 

BY 

THE    REV.    ROBERT    BAIRD,    D.   D. 


"  To  show  forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  me  out  o! 
darkness  into  His  marvellous  light." — 1  PETER  2 :  9. 


NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED  BY  J.  F.  TROW  &  CO.. 
33  ANX-STREET. 

I  S  4  5 . 


EHTEBED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1845,  by 

W.  W.  CHESTER, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District 
of  New- York. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

TAGE 

The  Author's  Youth. — His  Residence  in  the  Monas- 
tery.— A  false  Miracle,  .....  37 

CHAPTER  II. 

Causes  of  the  attack  upon  the  Conventual  Establish- 
ments.— Dispersion  of  Monastic  Communities. — 
The  Author's  Enlistment  in  the  Army. — State  of 
the  Army  of  Don  Carlos, 47 

CHAPTER  III. 

My  Imprisonment. — The  Convent  in  Savoy. — Return 
to  Spain. — Change  in  the  Army. — Capture  of  Ripoll 
and  Moya. — Wonderful  Preservation,  .  .  56 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Defeat  of  the  Carlist  Army. — How  I  met  with  the 
Word  of  God. — I  enter  the  Seminary. — Protestant 
Arguments. — Interview  with  a  Protestant  Pastor. — 
My  resolution  to  leave  the  Seminary  overcome,  .  C8 

CHAPTER  V. 

A  sacrilegious  Experiment. — I  leave  the  Seminary. 
— The  Spanish  Priest. — I  am  driven  to  Langres. — 
Unhappy  situation  there. — The  Spanish  character.  81 


2052967 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

Despair. — Conversion. — Depart  from  Langres. — Cor- 
respondence with  my  Parents,  .  .  .  .97 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Distribution  of  the  Scriptures  among  my  Countrymen. 
— The  Wolf  turned  into  a  Lamb. — Plots  formed  for 
taking  my  life, Ill 

CHAPTER  VI'T. 

Visit  to  the  Republicans  at  Clermont. — Brief  account 
of  Thiers. — Testaments  sold  and  returned,  .  119 

CHAPIER  IX. 

The  Wine-store  of  Cabrera. — Interview  with  two 
Priests,  and  the  results. — Glay,  ....  123 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Best  Medicine  and  the  Best  Physician. — The 
Curate  of  Salvatat. — My  Ex-General  Zorrilla. — 
My  Retreat  to  Geneva, 137 

CHAPTER  XL 

My  Countryman  Yagues. — Calderon's  Visit  to  Mai- 
rid. — Failure  of  my  Plan  to  Return  to  Spain. — The 
desired  one  arrives  unexpectedly. — My  Departure 
from  Geneva, 150 

CHAPTER  XII. 

My  Feelings  towards  those  who  think  me  in  Error. — 
Passage  across  the  Atlantic. — Address  to  the  Amer- 
ican Brethren. — Conclusion,  ....  160 


TKODUCTION. 


CIBCUMSTANCES  seem  to  require  that  some- 
thing should  be  said  by  way  of  introduction  in 
presenting  the  following  memoirs  to  the  Chris- 
tian public  ;  and  at  the  request  of  their  author. 
I  have  consented  to  undertake  the  task. 

When  Mr.  Monsalvatge  arrived  in  this  coun 
try,  a  few  months  ago,  many  persons  who  heard 
from  his  own  lips  an  account  of  his  life,  his 
conversion  to  true  religion,  and  his  subsequent 
labors  in  behalf  of  his  countrymen,  expressed 
a  dtsire  to  see  something  from  his  pen,  in 
order  that  there  might  be  some  permanent 
memorials  of  the  wonderful  display  of  Divine 
gracp  which  had  brought  him  out  of  the  dread- 
ful darkness  and  delusions  of  the  papacy  into 
the  glorious  light  of  the  Truth.  And  every 
week  of  his  stay  among  I  as  increased  and 
diffu  ed  this  wish  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
have  from  time  to  time  become  acquainted 
with  him.  The  consequence  has  been  the 
I* 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

preparation  of  the  narrative  which  follows  in 
the  French  by  Mr.  Monsalvatge,  and  its  trans- 
lation into  English  by  some  of  his  friends. 

And  it  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  assure 
the  reader,  that  these  memoirs  are  worthy  of 
his  entire  and  unhesitating  belief.  Their  au- 
thor and  subject  is  a  man  who  has  been  well 
tried  since  he  became  a  Protestant,  and  lias 
given  the  best  of  proof,  both  of  the  sincerity 
of  his  convictions,  and  of  the  truth  of  his  state- 
ments. He  has  the  entire  confidence  of  many 
excellent  brethren  in  France  and  Switzerland, 
by  whom  he  has  been  most  affection  it ely 
commended  to  us.  Still  more  ;  all  who  have 
become  acquainted  with  him  since  he  came  to 
our  shores,  have  been  struck  with  his  simple, 
fervent,  and  unostentatious  piety  ;  his  sound 
judgment ;  his  prudent  .zeal ;  his  remarkable 
wisdom  ;  and  his  admirable  charity.  Every 
where  there  has  been  but  one  opinion  enter- 
tained respecting  him,  and  that  is,  that  wheth- 
er we  consider  his  natural  endowments  of  un- 
derstanding and  heart,  or  the  transforming 
influence  of  Divine  grace  upon  his  character, 


* 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

he  is  no  common  man.  And  we  cannot  but 
hope  that  the  God  of  all  grace,  who  has  called 
him  to  the  knowledge  of  His  salvation,  and 
who  has  hitherto  blessed  his  labors,  will  con- 
tinue to  make  him  an  instrument  of  doing 
great  good  to  many  souls. 

These  memoirs  possess  a  thrilling  interest 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  They  tell  us 
the  history  of  one  who  was  born  and  educated 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
not  as  she  is  when  surrounded  by  the  light 
which  shines  upon  her  in  this  Protestant  coun- 
try, but  when  enshrouded  in  the  bigotry, 
ignorance,  and  ferociousness  which  prevail  in 
benighted  Spain.  They  reveal  to  us  the 
heart  of  a  Capuchin  monk,  who  for  years 
pursued  a  monastic  life,  and  submitted  to  all 
its  repulsive  rigors  with  cheerfulness,  in  the 
vain  hope  of  meriting  the  felicity  of  heaven, 
or  at  least  of  abridging  the  pains  of  purgatory. 
They  reproduce  this  same  man  on  the  stage, 
no  longer  as  a  monk,  but  as  a  soldier,  a  man 
of  blood,  fighting  for  Don  Carlos  and  for 
Rome,rwith  the  same  zeal  which  characterized 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

his  life  in  the  monastery.  But  another  change 
takes  place,  and  the  warrior-monk  again  ap- 
pears as  the  humble  child  of  grace,  meekly 
bearing  ir suits  ai  d  blows  from  his  former  fel- 
low soldiers  and  officers,  whilst  he  goes  about 
bearing  to  them  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and 
exhorting  them  to  buy  and  read  the  Word  of 
life. 

But  they  also  have  an  interest  which  is  of 
another  and  very  peculiar  nature.  They  re- 
late not  only  to  the  conversion  of  one  individual, 
but  of  several  others  of  the  Spanish  race. 
They  show  us  that  the  Spanish  mind  and  the 
Spanish  heart,  though  the  most  firm  of  all 
minds  and  of  all  hearts  in  adherence  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith,  the  most  bigoted  in  its 
attachment  to  the  religion  of  Rome,  and  the 
most  ready  to  obey  her  call  to  the  work  of  exter- 
minating heretics,  can  be  enlightened  and  re- 
newed by  the  grace  of  God,  and  won  over  by 
the  sweet  influences  of  the  Gospel  to  that "  king- 
dom which  consists  in  righteousness,  peace,  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  They  demonstrate, 
what  we  were  slow  to  believe,  that  the  glorious 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

and  peaceful  Gospel  can  triumph  over  a  race 
which  has  been,  for  ages,  the  most  cruel  and 
bloodthirsty  of  all  the  family  of  civilized  men  : 
a  race  from  which  sprang  the  Society  of  the 
Jesuits  ;  amid  which  the  Inquisition  has  been 
worked  with  the  most  unrelenting  and  fearful 
energy  ;  and  which  has  been  the  most  solici- 
tous of  all  the  Roman  Catholic  world  to  purge 
itself  of  even  the  slightest  taint  or  charge  of 
heresy. 

Yes,  these  memoirs  show  us  that  there  is 
hope  for  the  Spanish  race,  which  is,  next  to 
the  Gallican,  the  most  important  of  all  the 
Latin  nations.  This  is  a  subject  of  vast  im- 
portance, and  I  propose  to  call  the  reader's 
attention  particularly  to  it  in  a  few  of  the  fol- 
lowing paragraphs. 

The  French,  or  Gallican  race,  comprehends 
about  thirty-eight  millions.  And  although  no 
portion  of  the  subjects  of  Rome  have  shown 
more  jealousy  of  ultra-montane,  or  excessive, 
claims  on  the  part  of  the  Papal  See,  or  more 
independence  of  spirit  on  certain  points  of 
doctrine,  and  on  certain  occasions,  when  it  has 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

been  attempted  to  enforce  those  claims,  yet 
no  race  has  rendered  Rome  more  effectual 
service.  It  was  this  race  that  created  the 
Papacy  ;  and  it  has  ever  done  more  to 
sustain  it  than  any  other.  The  French 
Roman  Catholics  have  always  given  more 
money  to  propagate  the  Roman  Catholic  faith 
than  any  other  people ;  and  the  best  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries  have  in  all  time  past 
been  Frenchmen. 

Now,  in  the  wonderful  providence  of  God, 
it  is  exactly  among  this  very  portion  of  the 
subjects  of  Rome  that  the  Truth  is  making 
most  progress  in  our  day.  Dreadful  as  were 
the  persecutions  which  Rome  excited  against 
the  Protestants  of  France  in  the  16th,  17th, 
and  18th  centuries,  they  were  not  permitted 
to  lead  to  their  extermination.  A  "  remnant" 
still  remained.  And  from  its  ashes,  as  it  were, 
the  Protestant  Church  has  been  raised  up 
within  these  last  few  years,  and  great  is  the 
progress  which  Truth  is  making  in  a  country 
which  has  been  steeped  in  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrs. 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

The  glorious  Reformation  spread  in  Spain 
also  in  the  16th  century  ;  and  many  embraced 
its  doctrines.  Nor  were  they  among  the  hum- 
bler classes  of  people ;  some  noble  minds  re- 
ceived those  doctrines,  and  were  ready  to  suf- 
fer the  loss  of  all  things  for  the  sake  of  the 
Truth.     But  soon   that  most  horrible  of  all 
engines,  the  Inquisition,  was  employed  to  ef- 
fect their  destruction  ;  and  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  Protestantism  was  extirpated  from 
the  entire  Peninsula.     The  consequence  was, 
that  for  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
neither  in  Spain,  nor  any  of  the  countries  col- 
onized from  Spain,  was  the  least  vestige  of  the 
Protestant  religion   to  be  found.     Over  the 
whole  Iberian  race,  whether  in  the  Old  or  the 
New  World,  Rome  maintained  an  undisputed 
reign ;  and  a  cruel  and  debasing  superstition 
supplanted  the  Truth.  What  the  fruits  of  Ro- 
manism have  been  among  that  race,  I  need 
not  undertake  to  say,  for  the  world  knows  that 
they  have  been  ignorance,  bigotry,  despotism, 
civil  wars,  and  deplorable  wretchedness. 
The  history  of  Christianity   in  Spain    is 


XII  INTRODUCTION. 

deeply  interesting.  Rejecting,  as  absurd,  the 
Spanish  traditions,  that  James,  the  son  of 
Zebedee,  first  preached  the  Christian  doctrine 
to  the  people  of  that  country,  sent  seven  pres- 
byters to  Rome  to  be  ordained  by  Pope  Peter, 
and  then  returned  to  Jerusalem  in  time  to  ob- 
tain the  martyr's  crown,  we  may  confidently 
receive  two  facts  which  are  sufficiently  estab- 
lished by  authentic  history  ;  one  of  which  is, 
that  the  Gospel  was  early  preached  in  the 
Peninsula,  and  the  other,  that  it  extensively 
spread  there  notwithstanding  the  persecutions 
to  which  those  who  received  it  were  from  time 
to  time  exposed.  Beyond  these  two  facts 
nothing  is  certainly  known  respecting  the  very 
early  history  of  Christianity  in  Spain. 

In  the  fourth  century,  the  Spanish  churches 
were  overrun  by  the  Priscillian  heresy,  which 
predominated  in  them  about  two  centuries, 
and  was  a  compound  of  the  tenets  of  the 
Manicheans  and  Gnostics.  In  other  words,  in 
its  most  important  principle,  it  was  Arianism. 
Nestorianism  and  some  other  heresies  of  less 
note  also  had  considerable  currency  in  Spain 


INTRODUCTION.  Xlll 

But  that  which  made  the  most  noise  was  what 
was  called  "  adoptionarian  heresy," — viz.,  that 
Christ  is  only  the  adopted  Son  of  God — which 
was  broached  by  Elipand,  Archbishop  of 
Toledo,  in  the  eighth  century. 

But  if  Spain  had  her  heretics,  and  even  her 
heresiarchs,  she  also  had  noble  defenders  of 
the  Truth.  Claude,  so  greatly  celebrated  as 
Bishop  of  Turin,  in  the  ninth  century,  was  a 
native  of  Spain.  And  so  was  Galindo  Pru- 
dentio,  Bishop  of  Troyes  in  France,  a  con- 
temporary of  Claude,  and  like  him,  a  great 
favorite  with  Charlemagne,  and  an  able  and 
zealous  friend  of  the  true  Gospel. 

And  although  the  Spanish  churches  had 
bishops  in  the  fourth  century,  and  gradually, 
in  imitation  of  the  churches  in  other  countries, 
which  had  submitted  to  tbe  lordly  domination 
of  the  clergy  of  the  great  cities,  that  began  in 
the  days  of  Constantino,  allowed,  but  after 
much  opposition,  the  creation  of  metropolitans, 
archbishops,  vicar-generals,  etc.,  yet  they 
never  suffered  the  Bishops  of  Rome  to  inter- 
fere authoritatively  in  their  affairs  during  the 
2 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

first  eight  centuries.  And  although  it  may 
seem  strange  to  those  who  only  know  that  the 
Spaniards  have  been  the  most  devoted  and 
firm  of  all  the  subjects  of  the  Roman  See  in 
modern  times,  and  the  most  ready  to  fight  its 
battles,  to  hear  that  the  supremacy  of  the  self- 
styled  successors  of  St.  Peter  was  never  fully 
established  in  Spain  until  the  first  eleven  cen- 
turies had  passed  away,  it  is  nevertheless  true. 
Still  more,  it  was  not  until  about  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago,  that  the  zeal  of  the 
Spanish  nation  in  behalf  of  the  Roman  See 
reached  any  thing  like  its  present  maturity  of 
growth  and  extent  of  vigor, — a  consummation 
to  which  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  in  the 
reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  the  Catholic, 
and  the  discovery  of  both  the  Indies,  greatly 
contributed. 

Nor  was  the  Roman  See  left  long  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  Spain.  For  the  doctrines 
of  the  Albigenses  penetrated  into  the  northern 
portions  of  the  Peninsula  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, if  not  earlier,  and  found  many  friends 
an  advocates.  Indeed,  the  northern  districts 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

of  that  country  and  the  adjacent  provinces  of 
France  were  then,  and  for  centuries  afterwards, 
under  the  same  government.  Their  inhabit- 
ants were,  and  are  still,  essentially  the  same 
people.  Their  language  was,  and  is  still,  es- 
sentially the  same  patois,  or  dialect,  differing 
almost  equally  from  pure  French  on  the  one 
hand,  and  pure  Castilian  on  the  other ;  being 
in  fact  the  remains  of  an  old  Celtic  tongue, 
which  has  not  been  absorbed  in  either  of  the 
two  Latin  languages  which  have  striven  to 
supplant  it.  Under  these  circumstances, 
nothing  could  be  more  probable  than  that  the 
"  Albigensian  heresy,"  as  Rome  denominated 
the  blessed  doctrines  held  by  the  noble  re- 
formers whom  God  raised  up  in  Languedoc 
and  Provence,  and  especially  in  the  region 
around  Toulouse,  in  the  twelfth  century,  or 
rather  who  were  only  a  resuscitation  of  the 
primitive  Christianity  which  had  never  become 
extinct  in  those  provinces,  should  spread  into 
the  northern,  and  especially  the  north-eastern 
parts  of  Spain.  And  history  tells  us  that  this 
was  the  case.  Nor  were  they  confined  in  their 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

dissemination  to  the  northern  parts  of  t't 
Peninsula  ;  they  spread  extensively  in  other 
portions  of  it.  And  Spain  possessed  many 
thousands  of  devoted  Christians,  who  never 
bowed  the  knee  to  that  Baal  which  had  been 
set  up  in  Rome.  They  were  called  by  va- 
rious names,  among  which  those  of  Albigen- 
ses,  and  Vaudois  or  Waldenses,  were  the 
most  common. 

But  history  takes  care  also  to  inform  us  that 
the  same  Rome  which  instigated  Simon  de 
Montfort  and  the  kings  of  France  to  make 
war  upon  the  Albigenses  in  France,  and  upon 
their  good  and  noble  protectors,  the  Counts  of 
Toulouse,  and  after  having  broken  them  down 
by  war,  exterminated  them  at  her  leisure  by 
the  aid  of  St.  Dominic  and  his  monkish  Jani- 
zaries, was  not  less  active  in  hunting  up  those 
who  had  embraced  the  same  doctrines  south 
of  the  Pyrenees.  Blood  followed  abundantly 
in  Spain  as  well  as  in  France.  And  the 
prayers  and  the  groans  6f  dying  martyrs  as- 
cended, from  many  a  spot  in  that  country,  to 
heaven's  high  vault, — not  to  remain  unheard 


INTRODUCTION.  XV11 

or  forgotten  j  by  Him  who  is  exalted  to  be 
"  Lord  over  all,"  and  who  sitteth  "  King  in 
Zion." 

But  Rome  triumphed,  and  the  Truth  fell 
down  slain  by  her  hand,  both  in  France  and 
Spain.  And  yet  all  was  not  lost.  The  holy 
appeals  of  Wickliff  in  England,  and  of  Huss 
and  Jerome  amid  the  mountains  in  Bohemia, 
found  a  welcome  and  a  response  in  many  a 
heart  even  in  the  Iberian  Peninsula.  Tt  was 
in  this  way  that  Error  was  prevented  from 
having  exclusive  and  uncontested  dominion  in 
that  beautiful  but  benighted  country. 

At  k'ngth  the  16th  century  came,  and  with 
it  the  voice  of  Luther  summoning  the  nations 
to  rise  and  cast  from  them  the  yoke  of  Rome. 
Nor  did  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  fail 
to  reach  Spain.  There  were  many  causes 
which  led  to  this.  A  king  of  Spain  was  cho- 
sen Emperor  of  Germany,  under  the  title  of 
Charles  V.  This  prince  was  born  in  Nether- 
lands, as  what  are  now  Belgium  and  Holland 
were  then  called, — and  which  were  then  under 
the  government  of  Spain.  The  eventful  life  of 


XVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

this  monarch  was  spent  in  various  countries. 
One  while  he  was  in  Spain,  then  in  Italy,  then 
in  Germany,  then  in  the  Low  Countries,  and 
then  hack  in  his  patrimonial  inheritance.  This 
led  to  a  vast  intercourse  on  the  part  of  the 
Spaniards  with  the  Italians,  the  Germans,  and 
the  Flemish.  Not  only  courtiers,  statesmen, 
and  merchants,  but  soldiers  also,  went  from 
the  Peninsula  into  those  various  countries ; 
and  there  many  of  them  came  into  con- 
tact with  the  Reformed  opinions.  And  from 
those  various  countries  these  opinions  were 
carried  into  Spain,  in  spite  of  all  that  Rome 
could  do, — sometimes  in  the  writings  of  the 
Reformers  published  at  Wittemburg,  or  Basle, 
or  Venice,  or  Antwerp  ;  but  oftener  still  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  had  embraced  them.  In 
this  way  the  Truth  threatened  to  overrun  and 
conquer  one  of  the  fairest  provinces  of  Rome. 
It  is  certain  that  the  Reformed  opinions  se- 
cretly gained  an  extensive  currency  in  both 
Spain  and  Portugal  for  several  years  before 
they  were  avowed  by  any  native  of  either 
country.  The  first  Spaniard  who  is  known 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

to  have  professed  openly  the  Protestant  Faith 
was  Juan  Valdes,  who  by  his  conversations 
and  by  his  writings  did  much  to  make  known, 
both  in  his  native  land  and  in  Italy,  the  true 
Gospel.  He  was  a  layman  who  stood  high  in 
the  estimation  of  Charles  V.,  who  sent  him  to 
Naples  in  quality  of  Secretary  to  the  Vice- 
roy ;  for  the  southern  part  of  Italy,  together 
with  the  Island  of  Sicily,  belonged  at  that  day 
to  the  Crown  of  Spain.  At  Naples  Valdes 
spent  a  number  of  years,  actively  promoting 
in  secret  the  cause  of  Truth,  and  died  in  the 
year  1540,  to  the  great  regret  of  all  who  loved 
the  new  doctrines  in  that  city.  Many  of  his 
best  writings  were  published  several  years  af- 
ter his  death,  at  Venice ;  among  which  was 
his  commentary  on  the  Psalms. 

The  next  Spaniard  of  influence  who  avow- 
ed the  Reformed  doctrine  was  Rodrigo  de 
Valer,  a  native  of  Lebrixa,  a  town  about  thir- 
ty miles  from  Seville.  He  had  been  an  ex- 
ceedingly dissipated  young  man;  but  was  led 
suddenly  to  abandon  all  the  scenes  of  folly 
and  fashion  by  the  reading  of  the  Vulgate,  the 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

only  translation  of  the  Bible  permitted  in 
Spain.  For  a  while  he  was  enabled  boldly  to 
make  known  the  Truth  ;  but  at  length  he  was 
arrested  and  condemned  to  imprisonment  for 
life,  a  punishment  which  he  underwent  in  a 
monastery  in  the  town  of  San  Lucar,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Guadalquiver,  where,  separated 
from  all  human  society,  he  died  about  the  age 
of  fifty. 

The  most  distinguished  of  the  converts  of 
Valer  was  Juan  Gil,  better  known  by  the 
name  of  Egidius.  He  had  early  distinguished 
himself  by  his  knowledge  of  Scholastic  the- 
ology, and  was  chosen  preacher  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Seville.  Several  years  after  having 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  post,  his  mind 
was  enlightened  in  the  great  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  by  the  conversations  of  Valer,  and  he 
became  a  faithful  and  most  eloquent  preacher 
of  the  Truth,  and  brought  many  others  to  the 
knowledge  of  it,  some  of  whom  received  the 
crown  of  martyrdom.  At  length,  being  sus- 
pected of  heresy,  he  was  arrested,  tried  by  the 
Inquisition,  and  condemned  to  three  years  im- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXi 

prisonment.  Shortly  after  having  completed 
this  term  of  suffering  for  righteousness'  sake 
he  died.  Few  men  in  Spain  did  so  much  as 
he  for  the  diffusion  of  the  Reformed  doctrine. 
He  died  in  the  year  1556.  Among  those  who 
had  aided  most  effectually  in  his  efforts  to 
make  known  the  Truth  in  Seville,  were  two 
men  of  distinguished  merit ;  the  one  was  Var- 
gas, and  the  other  Constantine  Ponce  de  la 
Fuente.  The  former,  however,  was  after  a 
few  years  taken  away  by  death,  and  the  latter 
was  called  for  a  while  to  the  Netherlands. 

One  of  the  Spaniards  who  earliest  em- 
braced the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  was 
Francisco  San  Roman,  a  native  of  Burgos, 
who  having  gone  to  Bremen  on  mercantile 
business,  there  heard  the  gospel,  and  embraced 
it  with  the  whole  heart.  His  zeal,  which 
needed  the  restraints  of  prudence,  led  him  to 
be  arrested  at  Ratisbon,  whither  he  had  gone 
to  see  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  After  hav- 
ing been  carried  in  chains  to  Italy,  and  thence 
to  Algiers,  which  the  Emperor  attempted  in 
vain  to  capture,  he  was  brought  to  Valladolid, 


XX11  INTRODUCTION. 

in  his  native  country,  where  he  was  tried  by 
the  Inquisition,  condemned,  and  burned.  The 
Christian  manner  in  which  he  met  this  awful 
death,  together  with  the  nature  of  the  accusa- 
tion on  which  he  was  condemned,  inspired 
many  in  that  city  who  secretly  held  the  new 
opinions  to  profess  them  boldly,  and  exert 
themselves  actively  in  their  propagation. 

Among  the  distinguished  Spaniards  who 
embraced  the  Reformed  doctrines,  were  three 
brothers  of  the  name  of  Enzinas,  Jayme, 
Francisco,  and  Juan,  who  \vere  sent  by  their 
father  to  prosecute  their  studies  at  Louvain,  a 
university  in  the  Netherlands.  It  was  there 
that  they  first  became  acquainted  with  the 
gospel.  The  lives  of  these  young  men  were 
various.  One  of  them,  Juan,  studied  medi- 
cine, and  became  a  professor  of  that  science 
at  Marburg,  in  Germany.  Jayme  resided  at 
Rome  several  years,  engaged  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  studies,  and  living  the  life  of  a  de- 
voted Christian.  But  just  as  he  was  about  to 
quit  the  Eternal  City  for  Germany,  he  was 
informed  against,  arrested,  condemned,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI11 

burned  as  a  heretic.  He  underwent  this 
dreadful  death  with  the  cheerful  heroism  of  a 
martyr.  The  second  brother,  Francisco,  after 
having  resided  at  Paris,  Geneva,  and  Brus- 
sels, published  his  translation  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament at  Antwerp  in  the  year  1543  ;  and 
for  doing  so,  and  especially  for  his  supposed 
attachment  to  the  Reformed  opinions,  he  was 
thrown  into  prison  in  Brussels,  where  he  lay 
several  months  :  but  escaping  from  confine- 
ment, he  took  refuge  in  Germany,  and  after- 
wards visited  London,  whence  he  returned  to 
the  continent,  and  went  to  reside  at  Basle. 

The  efforts  of  Francisco  Enzinas  to  give 
his  countrymen  the  Scriptures  in  their  vernac- 
ular tongue,  were  followed  by  those  of  Juan 
Perez,  Casiodoro  de  Reyna,  and  Cypriano  de 
Valera,  all  friends  of  Egidius,  who  sought 
safety  in  quitting  Seville,  when  that  excellent 
man  was  thrown  into  prison.  The  first  nam- 
ed translated  the  New  Testament  and  the 
Psalms  into  Spanish,  and  wrote  a  catechism, 
or  summary  of  Christian  doctrine,  which  were 
published  in  Venice  in  the  years  1556  and 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

1557.  After  his  death,  de  Reyna  continued 
the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
produced  a  version  of  the  whole  Bible,  which 
was  printed  in  1569  at  Basle.  Cypriano  de 
Valera  revised  the  whole,  and  published  the 
New  Testament  in  1596  at  London,  and  both 
the  Old  and  the  New  in  1602  at  Amsterdam. 
And  although  these  translations  appeared  af- 
ter the  Reformation  had  been  suppressed  in 
Spain,  they  helped  to  diffuse  the  truth  among 
the  Spaniards  residing  out  of  Spain,  and  are  a 
monument  of  the  noble  zeal  of  their  authors 
in  behalf  of  God'?  Word. 

Among  the  most  distinguished  leaders  of 
the  friends  of  the  Reformed  doctrine  in  Spain, 
after  the  death  of  Egidius,  were,  unquestion- 
ably, Constantine  Ponce  de  la  Fuente,  at 
Seville,  and  Christobal  Losada,  a  doctor  of 
medicine,  Don  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  and  Do- 
mingo de  Guzman,  of  the  same  city  ;  Domin- 
go de  Roxas,  Augustin  Cazalla,  (esteemed 
one  of  the  best  pulpit  orators  in  Spain,  and  of 
Jewish  extraction,)  and  Don  Carlos  de  Seso, 
at  Valladolid.  There  were,  however,  many 
others  who  were  active  in  the  good  cause. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

Seville  and  Vallaclolid  were  the  two  cities 
in  and  around  which  the  Reformation  spread 
most,  penetrating  even  into  several  monaste- 
ries and  convents.  Yet  there  were  many 
Protestants  in  Aragon,in  New  Castile,  and  in 
the  provinces  of  Granada,  Murcia,  and  Va- 
lencia. In  fact,  the  doctrines  of  the  Refor- 
mation found  secret  friends  in  almost  all  parts 
of  the  Peninsula.  And  what  is  not  a  little 
remarkable,  they  were  among  distinguished 
people  of  the  country,  for  rank  and  learning. 
And  so  great  was  the  progress  of  the  Truth, 
that  had  not  the  Government  conspired  with 
the  Roman  hierarchy,  and  put  in  requisition 
every  means  which  the  Inquisition  furnished, 
Spain  would  unquestionably  have  soon  become 
a  Protestant  country. 

But  at  length  Rome  awoke  to  a  sense  of 
the  danger  which  menaced  her  dominion  in 
Spain,  and  buckled  on  the  harness  for  th<3 
work  of  exterminating  the  "  heresy  "  which 
was  fast  spreading  there.  And  now  bloody 
Bcenes  began  to  be  witnessed  in  all  directions, 
especially  about  Seville  and  Valladolid,  and 
3 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

in  the  country  of  Aragon.  The  Inquisition 
was  worked  with  Spanish,  or,  in  other  words, 
hellish  cruelty.  It  was  in  the  year  1558  that 
Rome  let  loose  the  myrmidons  of  St.  Domi- 
nic upon  the  Protestants  of  Spain,  and  so 
effectually  did  they  accomplish  their  task, 
that  in  the  space  of  two  years  they  succeeded 
in  getting  quite  through  it.  Vast  numbers  fled 
from  the  country.  Those  who  resided  in  Ara- 
gon and  other  parts  in  the  northern  portion  of 
the  kingdom,  escaped  by  hundreds  to  Beam 
and  other  adjoining  provinces  in  France,  where 
they  were  received  with  joy  by  their  Protest- 
ant brethren.  But  many  were  condemned  to 
hard  work,  to  solitary  confinement,  or  other 
forms  of  penance  ;  and  not  a  few  were  burned 
at  the  stake.  The  great  and  good  Constan- 
tine  Ponce  de  la  Fuente  died  hi  a  loathsome 
dungeon  ;  so  did  Olmedo,  a  man  distinguished 
for  his  learning  and  piety  ;  Cazalla;  and  his 
sister  Donna  Beatrice  de  Vibero,  Don  Carlos 
de  Seso,  Domingo  de  Roxas,  Juan  Sanchez, 
Don  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  Juan  Gonzalez, 
Garcia  de  Arias,  Christobal  d' Arellano,  Juan 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV11 

de  Leon,  Fernando  de  San  Juan,  Christobal 
Losada,  and  many  others,  were  burned. 
Among  these  were  several  ladies  who  under- 
went that  dreadful  death,  of  whom  may  be 
mentioned  Donna  Marina  Guevara,  Donna 
Isabel  de  Baena,  Maria  de  Virves,  Maria  de 
Cornel,  and  Maria  de  Bohorques,  all  of  them 
distinguished  women,  who  nobly  endured  the 
torture,  and  death  itself,  "  not  accepting  deliv- 
erance, that  they  might  obtain  a  better  resur- 
recton." 

But  I  can  pursue  this  subject  no  further. 
Persecution  did  its  work  effectually,  and  Spain 
was  rid  of  heresy.  The  Reformation  was 
extinguished  in  that  country.  Those  who 
fled  found  refuge  in  France,  in  Switzerland,  in 
Germany,  the  Low  Countries,  and  in  Eng- 
land. Churches  of  Spanish  Protestants  exist- 
ed for  a  time  in  Geneva,  in  Antwerp,  in  Lon- 
don. In  some  cases  the  Spanish  Protestants 
united  with  the  exiles  from  Italy,  and  joined 
in  their  churches.  But  in  process  of  time 
they  and  their  descendants  became  absorbed 
in  the  churches  of  the  native  Protestants  in 
the  places  where  they  settled. 


XXVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

As  to  Spain,  having  now  extinguished  the 
lights  which  had  for  a  while  been  kindled  in 
her  midst,  a  heavier  gloom  than  ever  settled 
down  upon  her.  and  upon  the  countries  which 
had  been  colonized  from  her.  Superstition, 
ignorance,  and  bigotry,  have  had  an  undis- 
puted reign  over  both  during  almost  three 
hundred  years.  And  what  have  been  their 
appropriate  fruits  ?  They  are  to  be  seen  in 
the  political  decline,  diminished  wealth,  re- 
stricted industry  and  commerce,  degraded 
morals,  uncultivated  intellect,  deplorable  dis- 
tractions and  civil  wars,  and  general  unhappi- 
ness,  which  prevail  in  those  countries.  From 
being  the  first  political  power  in  Europe,  Spain 
has  sunk  so  low  that,  with  a  population  of 
sixteen  millions  of  souls,  she  is  hardly  equal  to 
Denmark,  which  has  not  two  millions.  And 
as  to  the  Spanish  countries  on  our  own  conti- 
nent, there  is  not  one  that  is  capable  of  main- 
taining a  good  constitutional  government. 

But  a  brighter  day,  we  trust,  is  about  to 
dawn  upon  Spain  and  the  Spanish  race.  The 
papacy  will  not  be  permitted  to  have  an  un- 


INTRODUCTION.         .  XXJX 

ending  dominion  over  a  people  who  possess  so 
many  traits  of  character  which,  when  soften- 
ed and  moulded  by  the  genial  influences  of  a 
pure  Gospel,  will  render  them  as  noble  Chris- 
tians as  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Their  very 
pride,  and  haughtiness,  and  firmness,  surpass- 
ing even  Roman  constancy,  when  subdued  by 
the  blessed  religion  of  the  Bible,  will  sink 
down  into  elements  of  character  of  a  most 
valuable  nature.  It  may  be  difficult  to  con- 
vert Spaniards  to  pure  Christianity;  but  when 
converted  they  will  be  worth  something.  They 
will  be  men  who  may  be  depended  on.  They 
will  be  soldiers  of  the  cross  who  can  endure 
both  its  fatigues  and  its  shame.  That  Span- 
iards can  be  converted,  this  little  volume  proves 
beyond  a  doubt.  Who  can  read,  unmoved, 
the  simple  account  which  is  here  given  of  the 
patient,  kind,  and  persevering  efforts  of  this 
converted  monk  to  save  his  fellow  country- 
men ?  Where  shall  we  find  persons  who 
have  encountered,  undaunted,  such  opposition  ? 
Who  of  us  has  gone  the  fifteenth  time  to  a 
neighbor  or  friend  who  is  out  of  Christ,  after 
3* 


XXX  .  INTRODUCTION. 

having  been  repulsed  fourteen  times  ?  And 
not  only  repulsed,  but  beaten,  and  treated 
with  every  species  of  ignominious  insult  ? — 
Here  is  the  Spanish  character,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Divine  grace.  And  what  may  we 
not  expect  from  such  a  race  in  the  work  of 
building  up  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  when  they 
shall  have  received  extensively  the  blessed 
Gospel  ? 

The  Spanish  people  have  done  much  evil 
in  the  world — in  their  cruel  treatment  of  the 
aborigines  of  America,  and  in  commencing 
and  prosecuting  the  slave-trade.  But  they  can 
plead  ignorance  to  a  far  greater  extent,  as  an 
excuse  for  their  crimes,  than  we  can.  They 
have  not  known  that  blessed  Gospel  which  has 
been  our  glorious  inheritance, — bequeathed  to 
us  by  ancestors  who  obtained  it  at  the  price  of 
many  struggles  and  much  blood.  How  great 
their  ignorance  of  the  Gospel  is,  the  reader 
will  be  able  to  form  some  idea  from  the  pages 
which  follow  ;  for  they  contain  the  testimony 
of  a  competent  and  indubitable  witness. 

But  if  the  Spanish  people  have  done  much 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXI 

evil  in  the  world,  they  are  a  race  to  which  the 
world  also  owes  much.  For  they  once  did 
much  for  commerce,  and  for  the  extension  of 
the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge.  It  was 
Spanish  ships  which  led  the  way  to  both  the 
Indies.  It  was  under  Spanish  auspices,  and 
through  Spanish  enterprise,  that  the  continent 
upon  which  we  live  was  discovered,  and  where 
a  home  was  found  by  our  Protestant  ancestors 
when  they  were  compelled,  for  conscience' 
sake,  to  quit  the  Old  World. 

We  are  "  verily  debtors"  on  this  account 
to  the  Spanish  people,  and  ought  to  be  willing 
to  impart  to  them  that  which  is  our  greatest 
glory,  and  of  which  they  have  the  greatest 
need.  But  we  are  "debtors"  to  them  in  a 
higher  sense  ;  for  they,  as  all  other  men,  are 
our  brethren  and  our  neighbors,  and  we  are 
intrusted  with  the  Gospel,  and  have  received 
a  charge  to  impart  it  to  "  every  creature,"  so 
far  as  it  is  in  our  power  to  do  so. 

And  God  is  certainly  opening  the  door  to 
our  efforts ;  and  will  more  extensively,  if  wa 
importune  Him  to  do  so.  It  will  be  seen  in 


XXX11  INTRODUCTION. 

the  following  pages  that  the  civil  war  which 
has  so  long  raged  in  Spain  is  unquestionably 
preparing  the  way  for  the  spread  of  a  purer 
Christianity  in  that  country.  The  party  which 
is  called  the  Liberals,  or  Christines,  from  their 
hatred  to  the  Roman  See  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  priests,  because  they  have  ever  found 
both  to  be  hostile  to  constitutional  liberty,  are 

-evidently  brought  into  a  state  of  feeling  which 
is  favorable  to  the  reception  of  the  Protes- 
tant Faith,  when  properly  presented  to  them. 
And  whatever  vicissitudes  that  party  may  un- 
dergo, it  is  certain  in  the  end  to  prevail.  It 
cannot  fail  to  be  so.  Such  an  issue  of  the 
present  struggle  would  be  eminently  propi- 
tious to  the  cause  of  Truth.  It  would  secure 
an  open  door  for  the  glorious  Gospel.  Espar- 
tero,  the  late  regent  or  dictator  of  Spain,  and 
head  of  the  liberal  party,  remarked  to  a  friend 

<of  mine  a  few  years  ago,  that  he  wished  to  see 
all  Spain  filled  with  the  Bible,  "  for,"  said  he, 

•"  we  shall  never  have  a  good  government  here 
till  we  have  a  better  religion."  Nor  are  these 

•  enlightened  views  held  by  him  alone.     There 


INTRODUCTION.  XXX1I1 

are  many  distinguished  men  in  Spain  who 
share  them  with  him. 

The  following  memoirs  show  also  how  God 
is  making  the  civil  war  in  Spain  "turn  to  the 
furtherance  of  the  Gospel,"  in  another  way. 
The  driving,  alternately,  of  thousands  of  Car- 
lists  and  Christinos  into  France  has  been  made 
the  occasion  of  bringing  some  of  them  into  con- 
tact with  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  by  which  their 
minds  have  been  enlightened  in  the  "  Truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus."  Who  can  tell  what  effect  the 
conversion  of  even  a  few  men  of  talents  and 
energy  and  prudence,  may  have  upon  the  work 
of  God  in  Spain,  or  in  Spanish  America  ? 

How  important  this  subject  becomes  when 
viewed'as  it  ought  to  be  !  The  population  of 
Spain  is  about  sixteen  millions.  The  portion 
of  the  population  of  this  continent  which  is  of 
Spanish  origin,  or  under  Spanish  dominion, 
and  receiving  their  character  from  Spanish 
laws  and  opinions,  cannot  be  less  than  sixteen 
or  eighteen  millions  more.  We  have  then 
some  thirty-two  or  thirty-four  millions  of  peo- 
ple who  constitute  the  Spanish  race. 


XXXI V  JNTRODUCTION. 

Will  not  the  churches  of  our  land,  and  of 
other  Protestant  countries,  awake  to  the  vast 
importance  of  praying  and  laboring  for  the 
conversion  of  Roman  Catholic  nations  ?  Will 
they  not  be  provoked  to  right  views  and  ap- 
propriate efforts,  by  the  wisdom  and  zeal  which 
the  Romanists  show  in  their  aims  to  convert 
Protestant  countries,  especially  Great  Britain 
and  these  United  States  ?  I  cannot  but  be- 
lieve that  they  will.  Indeed  no  little  progress 
has  already  been  made  in  this  good  movement. 
And  it  is  confidently  hoped  that  the  perusal 
of  this  little  work  will  contribute  to  the  same 
good  result.  That  this  may  be  the  case  is  the 
earnest  prayer  of  all  those  who  have  been 
concerned  in  its  preparation.  And  should  it 
lead  to  a  more  heartfelt  and  effective  interest 
in  behalf  of  the  Society  which  has  undertaken 
the  mission  of  Mr.  Monsalvatge  to  the  Span- 
ish people  in  South  America,  as  soon  as  the 
door  may  be  opened  for  it,  it  will  not  have 
been  written  in  vain. 

In  relation  to  the  style  in  which  the  follow- 
ing memoirs  have  been  written,  it  does  not  be- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXV 

come  me  to  say  much.  The  work  has  mainly 
been  prepared  by  a  member  of  my  family,  who 
has  had  very  little  time  in  which  to  translate 
and  arrange  it.  As  to  myself,  my  official  and 
other  duties  have  utterly  precluded  my  giving 
any  attention  to  the  subject.  Should  any  por- 
tions of  it  be  .found  defective  in  point  of  phrase,, 
or  in  point  of  arrangement,  I  beg  that  it  may 
be  regarded  with  indulgence,  for  the  best  has 
been  done  that  the  circumstances  of  the  case 
have  permitted. 

I  cannot  but  hope  that  those  who  read  this 
little  work  will  not  fail  to  remember  the  simple 
and  earnest  request  which  Monsalvatge  ad- 
dresses to  American  Christians,  to  remember 
him  and  his  mission  in  their  prayers.  Let 
them  remember  also  his  parents,  his  brother,, 
and  his  two  sisters,  who  are  all  living  in  the 
darkness  and  superstition  of  Romanism.  And 
let  them  not  forget  to  pray  for  Spain,  benight- 
ed and  distracted  Spain,  and  the  whole  Span- 
ish race. 

Nor  can  I  bring  these  introductory  remarks 
to  a  close,  without  alluding  to  the  very  kind 


XXXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

manner  in  which  Mr.  Monsalvatge  refers  lo 
the  American  churches,  and  the  high  opinion 
which  he  has  expressed  respecting  their  piety, 
and  their  zeal  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  Would 
that  this  eulogium  were  better  deserved ! 
Would  that  we  could  see  in  the  nearly  three 
millions  of  tnembers  of  evangelical  churches 
in  this  land,  that  interest  which  they  ought  to 
feel  in  the  conversion  of  the  world  !  Would 
that  we  could  see  them  making  those  efforts 
to  impart  lo  others  that  blessed  salvation  of 
which  they  profess  to  have  partaken  !  Alas, 
how  far  they  are,  as  a  whole,  from  coming  up 
to. the  work  of  ihe  Lord,  as  they  ought,  con 
sidering  by  what  blood  they  have  been  re- 
deemed, and  by  what  an  Agent  they  have 
been  enlightened,  and  brought  out  of  darkness 
into  marvellous  light!  May  God  speedily 
cause  His  dear  children  to  consider  these 
things,  and  give  them  grace  to  do  with  all  dil- 
igence what  they  can  to  save  a  world  that  lieth 
in  wickedness.  R.  B. 

New  York,  May  1,  1845. 


THE   LIFE 

OF  A 

SPANISH    MONK 


CHAPTER  1. 

The  Author's  Youth. — His  Residence  in  the  Monastery. — 
A  false  Miracle. 

IN  the  following  pages  I  shall  attempt  to  give 
a  brief  sketch  of  my  history,  dwelling  especially 
on  the  latter  years,  during  which  I  have  had  the 
happiness  to  be  called  by  our  Lord  to  the  know- 
ledge of  His  truth,  and  the  practice  of  a  Chris- 
tian life.  I  was  born  on  the  17th  of  October, 
1815,  in  the  town  of  Olot,  in  the  province  of 
Giron  and  the  principality  of  Catalonia,  in  Spain. 
My  father,  a  merchant  of  that  place,  gave  me 
the  name  of  Ramon  Baudilio  Estaban  Monsal- 
vatge. 

4 


38  THE    LIFE    Of     A 

Olot  is  a  town  of  about  16,060  inhabitants, 
pleasantly  situated  on  the  border  of  a  wide  plain, 
eight  leagues  from  the  Pyrenees.  Two  steep 
hills,  called  San  Francisco  and  Mount  Olivet, 
rise  on  its  sides,  between  which  flows  a  clear 
stream  which  passes  by  the  town.  Its  inhabit- 
ants ?re  very  industrious,  and  are  widely  en- 
gaged in  manufactures. 

My  parents  were  very  devout  and  strict  in  fol- 
lowing the  rules  and  performances  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church.  From  my  very  infancy  they  dedi- 
cated me  to  the  priesthood.  In  my  childhood  I 
was  by  every  possible  means  withdrawn  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  customs  of  the  world,  and  was 
made  to  consider  the  estate  to  which  I  was  de- 
voted as  being  the  holiest  and  highest  in  exist- 
ence. All  kinds  of  books  the  object  of  which 
was  other  than  to  inspire  religious  sentiments 
were  kept  from  me.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  my 
father  and  my  uncle  provided  for  me  a  sum  of 
3,000  dollars,  which  was  required  before  a  person 
could  enter  the  priesthood.1  But  some  time  after 

1  At  that  time  the  priests  in  Spain  were  not  supported 
by  the  government ;  the  above  sum  was  therefore  to  be 
provided  for  every  man  who  desired  to  enter  the  priest- 
hood. 


SPANISH    MONK.  39 

this,  my  father,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  attend- 
ing the  chapel  of  the  Franciscan  convent,  and 
greatly  admired  the  regulations  and  customs  of 
that  order  of  monks,  determined  to  place  me 
among  them. 

I  remained  under  the  paternal  roof  till  the  age 
of  fifteen,  when,  having  passed  through  all  the 
lower  classes,  and  learned  the  Latin  language,  I 
was  sent  to  the  convent  of  the  Capuchin  Friars 
at  Barcelona,  where  I  was  admitted,  after  pass- 
ing an  examination.  I  was  then  sent  to  Sarria, 
to  spend  the  twelve  months  of  my  novitiate ;  and 
it  was  on  the  7th  of  September,  1830,  that  I  re- 
linquished the  dress  of  a  private  citizen  for  a 
monk's  coarse  robe  and  cowl ;  where  they  gave 
me  the  name  of  Friar  Simon  of  Olot,  instead  of 
that  which  had  been  conferred  on  me  at  bap- 
tism by  my  parents. 

The  austerity  and  severity  of  the  Capuchin 
order  is  well  known.  One  cannot  but  be  struck, 
upon  entering  one  of  its  convents,  with  the  rigid 
simplicity  of  its  churches  and  chapels,  and  the 
strict  regulations  which  govern  its  members. 
The  cells  of  the  monks  are  usually  but  ten  feet 
long  and  seven  wide ;  the  furniture  consists  of 
a  bed  of  boards,  with  a  simple  covering,  a  small 


40  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

table  upon  which  is  a  skull,  a  crucifix,  and  a  few 
devotional  books ;  the  floor  is  the  only  seat  of 
the  inmates.  Their  dress  consists  in  a  coarse 
frock,  a  cowl,  and  sandals. 

At  midnight  we  arose,  and  for  one  hour  sung 
the  Matins ;  at  five  we  spent  two  hours  in  medi- 
tation, on  our  knees.  The  day  was  occupied  by 
meditation,  reading  of  devotional  books,  and 
worship  in  the  chapel.  The  works  we  read 
were,  the  lives  of  saints,  tales  of  miracles,  chron- 
icles of  our  order,  and  such  like ;  but  never  did 
we  receive  any  instruction  respecting  other 
things  than  the  doctrines  and  saints  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church.1 

Three  times  a  week  we  performed  the  pen- 
ance of  flagellation.  This  consisted  in  striking 
ourselves  with  whips.  Some  of  these  were  mere- 
ly of  seven  knotted  ropes;  others  of  seven  cords 
of  iron  chain;  and  some  of  the  latter  had  small 
points  or  pins,  which  brought  blood  at  almost 
every  blow.  Often  have  I  seen  the  floor  and  the 
walls  spattered  with  the  blood  of  the  penitents ; 
and  this  penance  was  not  merely  an  occasional 
punishment,  but  a  regular  duty  performed  thrice 

1  This  refers  only  to  the  year  of  novitiate. 


SPANISH    MONK.  41 

a  week.  At  table,  the  strictest  silence  was 
maintained,  whilst  one  of  the  friars  read  aloud 
the  lives  of  saints,  etc. 

During  the  year  of  my  novitiate  I  was  not  al- 
lowed to  speak  to  any  one  but  the  confessor  and 
the  superior ;  and  that  only  in  cases  of  urgent 
necessity.  The  monks  are  not  allowed  to  raise 
their  eyes  under  any  circumstances.  The  pun- 
ishments, inflicted  for  the  slightest  fault,  were  of 
the  most  degrading  nature ;  such  as  licking  the 
floor,  eating  on  the  ground,  severe  penance,  &,c. 

Let  not  the  reader  imagine  for  a  moment  that 
the  men  who  lived  such  a  life  were  hypocrites 
and  deceivers.  I  do  not  think  that  there  was 
one  man  in  our  convent  who  did  not  sincerely 
believe  that  by  these  vain  and  disgusting  per- 
formances he  was  gaining  the  favor  of  God  and  an 
entrance  into  heaven.  Yes;  the  sincerity  and  ar- 
dor of  these  deluded  men  might  well  cause  many 
to  blush,  who  in  a  land  of  light  and  intelligence 
neglect  the  glorious  salvation  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  believed  in  these  vain  ceremonies,  in  these 
extravagant  tales  and  histories,  as,  I  doubt  not, 
many  others  have  believed  them.  And  when, 
after  years  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  1 
learned  to  love  the  Word  of  God,  how  precious 
4* 


42  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

did  it  appear  to  me !  how  infinitely  superior  to 
the  silly  imaginations  upon  which  my  soul  had 
been  fed  ! 

At  sixteen,  having  terminated  my  year  of  trial, 
I  made  a  religious  profession,  by  taking  the  vows 
of  obedience,  poverty  and  chastity ;  thus  re- 
nouncing the  pleasures  of  a  world  of  which  I 
knew  nothing.  In  the  month  of  December  1 
was  to  begin  the  study  of  philosophy ;  and  until 
then,  I  took  up  my  residence  in  the  Convent  of 
Sabadell,  four  leagues  from  the  city  of  Barce- 
lona. After  my  year  of  novitiate,  my  duties 
were  not  so  strict.  I  was  allowed  to  converse, 
to  spend  one  hour  a  day  in  recreation,  and  to 
devote  some  time  to  the  study  of  metaphysics. 
Another  daily  duty  was  added  :  that  of  visiting 
the  sick  and  the  dying. 

During  my  stay  at  Sabadell,  I  was  one  night 
awoke  from  my  sleep,  and  commanded  to  visit  a 
dying  man,  to  prepare  him  for  his  end.  I  went  ; 
and  the  man  cried  out  to  me  with  imprecations  : 
"  What  do  you  come  here  for  ?"  I  answered,  "My 
friend,  I  come  to  console  and  exhort  you,  that  you 
may  die  in  God,  by  the  intercession  of  our  bless- 
ed Virgin  Mary,  who  is  the  Mediatrix  between 
God  and  man  ;  and  also  to  induce  you  to  pray 


SPANISH    MONK.  43 

to  St.  Joseph,  who  is  the  guardian  of  the  dying."- 
He  then  ordered  his  wife  to  put  me  out  of  the 
house.  In  a  few  moments,  the  soul  which  I 
would  fain  have  led  to  heaven  by  the  interces- 
sion of  Mary,  had  gone  to  appear  at  the  judg- 
ment bar  of  the  eternal  God.  Oh  !  Jesus,  my 
only  Saviour!  had  I  but  pointed  that  soul  to 
Thee,  Thou  couldst  have  saved  it  from  the  hor- 
rors of  the  second  death  !  Alas  !  I  myself  was 
then  in  the  thickest  darkness  ;  but  now,  O  my 
God  !  I  know  that  Thou  hast  received  my  ran- 
som, and  hast  pardoned  this  and  all  my  sins 
through  Thy  Son,  who  died  on  the  cross. 

Near  the  house  of  this  dying  man,  was  another 
person  in  the  same  state,  attended  by  a  priest 
from  our  convent,  who,  having  been  informed  of 
my  circumstances,  hastened  to  my  assistance. 
He  was  too  late  ;  the  soul  had  already  taken  its 
flight ;  and  I  had  retired  into  an  adjoining  room 
and  had  fallen  asleep.  The  priest,  on  his  arrival, 
sent  for  the  servant  of  the  convent  to  keep  him 
company,  as  he  desired  to  spend  the  night  in  the 
chamber  of  the  dead  man,  in  order  to  keep  off 
the  powers  of  darkness,  which,  he  said,  would 
certainly  come  to  take  away  the  corpse,  the  in- 
mate of  which  they  had  already  in  their  posses- 


44  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

sion.  The  room  in  which  I  was  sleeping  was 
close  to  that  of  the  dead  man,  and  I  was  sudden- 
ly awoke  by  a  dreadful  noise,  which  greatly 
alarmed  me.  Much  excited,  and  afraid  to  leave 
the  room,  lest  devils  of  all  sorts  and  shapes 
should  surround  me,  "  What  can  I  do  ?"  I  said 
to  myself;  "  if  I  call,  I  shall  frighten  the  widow." 
At  length  I  gathered  some  courage,  and  covered 
my  head  with  the  bedclothes ;  but  it  was  in 
vain.  I  heard  persons  moving  the  bedstead, 
throwing  down  the  bureau,  and  making  such  a 
noise  that  it  seemed  as  though  every  piece  of 
furniture  were  moving  of  itself.  I  then  jumped 
out  of  bed,  and  ran  to  the  kitchen,  where  I  found 
the  widow  with  two  other  women,  who  were 
trying  to  console  and  comfort  her.  I  begged 
them  to  come  with  me  to  the  room  where  the 
corpse  lay ;  but,  when  we  arrived  there,  we  found 
the  door  fastened  within.  After  knocking,  we 
were  asked  what  we  wanted,  and  I  recognized 
the  voice  of  Father  Matthew,  who  told  me  to 
lead  the  women  back  to  the  kitchen,  and  to 
come  to  him  alone.  I  obeyed,  and  entered  the 
room,  where  I  found  Father  Matthew  and  the 
servant  of  the  convent  on  their  knees,  praying. 
They  told  me  that  four  evil  spirits,  in  the  form 


SPANISH    MONK.  45 

of  large  dogs,  had  come  and  torn  the  dead  body 
in  pieces,  each  seizing  one  quarter,  and  thus 
the  whole  body  disappeared.  "  Let  us  continue 
together,"  said  Father  Matthew,  "  to  pray  and 
exorcise  the  evil  spirits,  so  that  now,  at  least, 
they  shall  leave  the  house  in  peace."  After  this 
had  been  done,  we  agreed  with  the  relatives 
that  a  large  block  of  wood  should  be  placed  in 
the  coffin,  so  that  they  who  carried  it  might  not 
perceive  that  it  was  empty,  and  that  the  infamy 
attached  to  such  an  event  should  be  avoided  by 
the  family. 

The  next  day  the  funeral  took  place,  and  Fa- 
ther Matthew  in  his  sermon,  declared  to  his 
hearers  that  the  body  could  not  be  interred  in 
the  cemetery,  as  it  was  well  known  how  the  man 
had  died  ;  it  was  therefore  buried  without  the 
precincts  of  the  holy  ground.  Soon  after,  a 
pamphlet  was  printed  and  circulated,  which  ex- 
plained the  manner  of  the  death  and  the  taking 
away  of  the  body  of  the  unfortunate  man  by 
devils  ;  but  without  designating  his  name  or  that 
of  the  village  in  which  he  had  lived. 

When  Father  Matthew  told  me  what  had  hap- 
pened, I  believed  it ;  but  now  that  God  has 
been  so  gracious  to  me  as  to  open  my  eyes  to 


46  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

his  truth,  I  simply  believe  that  Father  Matthew 
and  the  servant  made  way  with  the  corpse.  It 
is  easy  to  understand  that  by  such  means  the 
priests  in  Spain  act  on  the  credulity  of  ignorant 
people,  and  thus  lead  them  to  throw  themselves 
upon  their  protection,  believing  that  on  their 
superstitious  performances  depends  the  salvation 
of  their  souls. 


SPANISH    MONK.  47 


CHAPTER    II. 

Causes  of  the  attack  upon  the  Conventual  Establishments. 
— Dispersion  of  Monastic  Communities. — The  Author's 
Enlistment  in  the  Army. — State  of  the  Army  of  Don 
Carles. 

ON  the  8th  of  December,  1632,  I  was  sent* 
from  the  convent  of  Sabadell  to  that  of  my  na- 
tive town,  Olot,  to  study  philosophy.  I  contin- 
ued there  three  years. 

The  last  twelvemonth,  1835,  which  I  spent 
in  the  convent  of  Olot,  was  one  of  continual 
anxiety  and  alarm.  News  was  often  received  of 
the  exasperation  excited  among  the  republicans 
in  Spain  against  the  monks,  especially  in  Mad- 
rid, Barcelona,  Reus,  and  other  parts  of  my 
country,  as  well  as  in  our  more  immediate  vi- 
cinity. The  people  grew  more  and  more  loud 
in  their  complaints  of  the  idleness,  wealth,  im- 
posture, and  immorality  which  prevailed  among 
the  monks. 


48  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

It  was  during  this  last  year  of  my  residence 
in  the  convent,  that  the  people  arose  against 
their  spiritual  masters.  In  the  course  of  that 
time,  they  broke  out  in  many  places  into  open 
violence,  destroyed  several  convents,  and  killed 
many  of  their  inmates.  Tidings  of  scenes  of 
bloodshed  and  devastation  were  constantly  arri- 
ving ;  and  we  were  kept  in  a  state  of  continual 
alarm.  We  took  measures,  also,  for  our  own 
defence,  expecting  an  attack  from  the  people  of 
Olot,  who  were  in  great  majority  against  us.  At 
the  command  of  our  Superior,  we  collected  great 
heaps  of  stones  in  different  parts  of  the  convent, 
to  be  used  as  missiles  in  case  of  necessity,  and  it 
was  understood  that,  upon  any  alarm,  the  bell 
would  be  rung  to  summon  all  good  Catholics  to 
our  aid.  We  had,  indeed,  several  opportunities 
of  defending  ourselves  against  our  enemies. 

In  1835,  the  Liberal  Government  of  Spain,  at 
the  head  of  which  was  Queen  Christina,  since 
the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII.  in  1833,  was  unable 
any  longer  to  withstand  the  insurgents,  and  or- 
dered that  all  the  monastic  communities  should 
be  dispersed,  and  their  convents  destroyed, 
which  was  done  in  many  places.  The  6th  of 
July  was  the  day  appointed  for  the  formal  sup- 


SPANISH    MONK.  49 

pression  of  our  convent.  The  Justicia,  or  civil 
officers,  presented  themselves,  and,  in  the  name 
of  the  queen,  declared  the  community  to  be  dis- 
solved, and  delivered  to  each  monk  a  passport  to 
return  to  his  native  place.  But  before  we  had 
time  to  leave  the  convent,  the  leaders  of  the  in- 
surgents of  Olot  rushed  in,  and  begantheir  work 
of  destruction.  The  crowd  soon  hastened  to 
the  chapel,  and  tore  down  the  pictures  and  the 
altars,  which  had  so  long  been  the  objects  of 
blind  adoration. 

There  was  there  an  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
which  had  the  miraculous  property  of  weeping. 
Many  a  time  have  I  seen  it,  with  the  big  tears 
trickling  down  its  cheeks,  and  I,  as  did  all 
others,  believed  it  to  be  unquestionably  a  mira- 
cle. When  the  insurgents  penetrated  into  the 
chapel,  as  I  have  above  stated,  they  tore  the  im- 
age down  from  its  niche,  and  discovered  behind 
its  head  small  tubes  conducting  from  a  basin  in 
which  water  was  poured ;  and  thus  the  image 
wept. 

Another  similar  discovery  was  made  in  our 

vicinity.     In  the  town  of  Baguet  there  was  q. 

church  which  was  celebrated  far  and  wide  for 

containing  a  figure  of  the  Saviour,  called  the 

5 


50  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

"  Santa  Majestad,"  or  Sacred  Majesty.  It  had 
the  appearance  of  being  covered  with  a  shining 
dress  down  to  the  knees,  and  was  reported  to 
have  been  miraculously  saved  from  destruction, 
when  in  1816  the  French  ineffectually  attempted 
to  burn  it.  This  image  had,  it  was  said,  the 
property  of  sweating.  This  was  called  a  mira- 
cle ;  but  the  insurgents,  who  tore  it  down,  with 
its  fellow-idols,  found  that  a  vessel  of  boiling  wa- 
ter was  placed  beneath  the  statue,  and  the  steam 
was  carried  through  tubes  over  the  body,  and  is- 
sued through  small  holes  or  pores.  As  to  its 
quality  of  not  burning,  this  was  not  of  much  ef- 
fect, as  it  by  no  means  resisted  the  attempts  of 
the  insurgents. 

These  discoveries,  and  many  other  such,  of 
the  shameful  impositions  to  which  they  had  so 
long  been  subjected,  so  exasperated  the  people, 
that  all  religious  feeling  was  lost  in  the  detesta- 
tion of  those  who  had  so  lately  been  the  objects 
of  their  respect.  The  churches  were  closed  for 
some  time;  all  images  and  pictures  of  the  saints 
which,  as  customary,  were  hung  up  in  the 
streets,  were  torn  down  and  destroyed. 

On  the  top  of  the  steeple  of  the  parish  church 
at  Olot  there  was  a  wooden  statue,  called  the 


SPANISH    MONK.  51 

"  Guardian  Angel."  One  day  the  insurgents 
succeeded  in  taking  down  this  image  from  its 
lofty  position,  and  dragged  it  along  through  the 
streets.  They  then  cut  it  up  in  pieces,  set  it  on 
fire,  and  placed  a  large  kettle  above  it,  in  which 
they  threw  a  crucifix,  and  pretended  to  be  ma- 
king a  soup  of  it. 

When  I  saw  these  horrible  scenes,  these  acts 
in  my  eyes  so  sacrilegious,  and  the  contempt  and 
abuse  with  which  my  brethren  were  covered,  I 
was  filled  with  indignation  and  hatred  against 
the  insurgents.  At  this  time,  all  those  who  had 
not  taken  holy  orders,  were  liable  to  military 
service  in  the  army  of  Queen  Christina,  to 
whose  government,  though  they  had  exceeded 
her  commands  in  their  destruction  of  the  con- 
vents, the  insurgents  were  subject. 

Since  the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII.  in  1833, 
his  brother  Don  Carlos  had  laid  claim  to  the 
throne  of  Spain,  and  his  party  had  been  constant- 
ly in  rivalship  with  that  of  the  Queen  Christina. 
He  was  regarded  as  the  protector  of  religion, 
and  on  his  side  were  all  those  who  were  to  be 
considered  as  true  Catholics.  I  was  then  unable 
to  discern  which  of  these  political  parties  was  in 
the  right,  and  I  was  eager  only  to  avenge  the 


52  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

massacre  of  my  brethren.  Incited  by  the  exhor- 
tations of  the  priests,  who  promised  indulgence  s 
to  all  who  should  enter  the  army  of  Don  Carlos 
to  uphold  the  rights  of  religion,  and  who,  like 
the  prophet  Isaiah,  exclaimed,  "  Who  is  on  the 
Lord's  side  ?  let  him  come  unto  us ;  put  every 
man  his  sword  on  his  side,  and  go  in  and  out 
from  gate  to  gate  throughout  the  camp,  and  slay 
every  man  his  brother,  and  every  man  his  com- 
panion, and  every  man  his  neighbour  ;"  it  is  not 
surprising  that  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  join  the  army. 
After  staying  three  weeks  with  my  parents  at 
Olot,  I  therefore  enlisted  in  the  army  of  Don 
Carlos,  and  received  the  grade  of  a  sergeant. 

The  life  of  a  soldier  was  very  different  from 
that  of  the  quiet  monk.  The  mental  prayer  was 
exchanged  for  the  oath;  the  bed  of  boards  at 
night  for  the  damp  ground ;  and  though  I  still 
counted  my  beads  three  times  a  day,  I  was  fre- 
quently interrupted  by  the  cry,  "  To  arms !" 
During  the  first  six  months  of  my  military 
course  I  had  to  sleep  on  the  ground  like  the  beasts 
of  the  field.  More  than  this;  whereas  in  the 
convent  I  had  a  sympathizing  heart  for  the  mis- 
fortunes of  my  fellow-creatures,  in  the  army  I 
became  hardened,  unfeeling,  and  cruel ;  I  loved 
~ 


SPANISH    MONK.  53 

to  shed  blood,  and  applauded  those  of  my  compan- 
ions who  were  more  skilled  in  cruelty  than  myself. 

I  might  attempt  to  give  a  description  of  the 
life  we  led  in  the  army  of  Don  Carlos,  but  I 
would  fail  of  communicating  any  adequate  idea 
of  its  distresses  and  dangers.  We  realized  there, 
in  its  fullest  extent,  the  peculiar  evils  of  civil 
war.  Things  are  very  different  when  you  fight 
with  foreigners.  Then  you  know  your  enemies, 
and  can  never  be  in  doubt  with  regard  to  them. 
Their  dress,  countenance,  language,  every  thing, 
betrays  them.  But  not  so  when  you  are  at  war 
with  your  own  countrymen.  Friends  and  foes 
all  look  alike,  and  you  can  never  be  sure  that 
you  are  not  deceived  in  any  one  on  whom  you 
rely,  until,  perhaps,  it  is  too  late. 

Much  of  our  time  was  spent  among  the  for- 
ests, for  the  Christines  often  drove  us  before 
them  to  the  most  inaccessible  places,  and  watch- 
ed us  constantly.  Weeks  have  passed  when,  I 
may  say,  I  hardly  spent  an  hour,  by  day  or  by 
night,  without  hearing  the  sound  of  firearms  ; 
and  the  attacks  were  often  the  most  sudden  and 
unexpected.  Rest  and  food  were  indeed  often 
necessary,  yet  continual  alarms  granted  us  the 
enjoyment  of  neither. 

5* 


54  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

The  peasants  and  shepherds,  on  whom  we 
were  generally  dependent  for  the  necessaries  of 
life,  were  sometimes  in  heart  our  enemies ;  and, 
when  not  so,  were  threatened  or  bribed  to  be- 
tray us.  The  Queen's  soldiers  would  some- 
times come  to  them  to  inquire  what  sick  or 
wounded  of  our  party  were  concealed  in  their 
houses  or  in  the  caverns  of  the  mountains,  and 
would  offer  them  money  for  every  one  they  dis- 
covered to  them.  They  frequently  threatened 
to  burn  their  houses,  and  even  to  take  their 
lives,  unless  they  gave  them  the  required  infor- 
mation. There  were  many  who,  yielding  to  the 
threats  and  promises  of  our  enemies,  betrayed 
us.  Sometimes  a  poor  monk  would  climb  up  to 
the  peasants  among  the  mountains,  begging  for 
food,  and  telling  a  tale  of  injuries  received 
from  the  Christinos.  His  eager  inquiries, 
where  he  could  see  his  friends  the  Carlists,  and 
at  what  hour  they  would  be  present,  would  be 
answered,  and  at  the  appointed  hour  he  would 
appear  again,  not  as  a  monk,  but  as  a  soldier, 
with  a  troop  of  Christinos  at  his  back. 

In  some  instances  men  were  sent  among  us  by 
the  government  or  its  supporters,  who  entered 
our  ranks  with  professions  of  being  devoted  to 


SPANISH    MONK.  55 

our  cause,  but  who  took  the  first  opportunity  to 
sprinkle  poison  in  our  food  when  preparing  it  for 
us ;  and  I  have  known  three  hundred  men  to 
die  in  one  day  by  such  means.  The  destruc- 
tion of  life,  in  a  similar  manner,  as  well  as  by 
continual  fighting,  was  great.  Of  five  young  men 
who  left  Olot  with  me,  but  one  is  now  living, 
and  he  has  lost  an  arm.  I  myself  did  not  es- 
cape many  wounds  and  injuries.  Indeed  it  is 
very  rare  in  this  day  to  meet  one  of  the  twenty- 
one  thousand  Catalonians  who  assembled  under 
Don  Carlos  in  1835  and  1836. 


56  THE    LIFE    OF    A 


CHAPTER   III. 

My  Imprisonment. — The  Convent  in  Savoy. — Return  to 
Spain. — Change  in  the  Army. — Capture  of  Ripoll  and 
Moya. — Wonderful  Preservation. 

IT  was  in  1836  that  I  one  day  received  the 
order  to  be  stationed  with  my  company  at  the 
extreme  point  of  the  Pyrenee  mountains,  which 
divide  France  and  Spain.  The  ground  was  co- 
vered with  snow,  and  the  fog  was  so  thick  that 
I  mistook  the  boundary  line,  and  we  were  on  the 
French  territory  before  we  knew  it.  In  a  few 
moments  I  was  arrested  by  two  French  soldiers, 
together  with  one  of  my  men ;  the  rest  of  the 
company  retreated  to  the  soil  of  Spain. 

We  were  conducted  from  prison  to  prison, 
until  we  reached  Montpellier,  where  I  received 
my  freedom  and  a  passport  for  Grenoble.  Some 
Spanish  priests  in  that  city  counselled  me  to  go 
into  Savoy.  I  therefore  went  to  Chambery, 


SPANISH    MONK.  57 

where  I  laid  aside  my  military  dress,  and  took 
once  more  the  robe  of  a  Capuchin  monk.  I 
was  immediately  sent  to  Yenne,  where  I  entered 
a  convent  of  my  order.  But  this  life,  after  the 
active  one  to  which  I  had  lately  been  accustom- 
ed, soon  wearied  me ;  and  it  seemed  to  me  that 
it  was  not  in  solitude  that  I  ought  to  serve  God 
whilst  the  Church  of  Spain  was  ravaged  in  the 
most  barbarous  manner.  I  thought  that  God 
and  His  faithful  soldiers  called  none  to  the  aid  of 
religion  but  those  who  had  strong  arms  to  de- 
stroy its  enemies,  and  to  sustain  and  protect  His 
Church. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1837,  having  obtained 
a  certificate  of  good  conduct  from  the  Superior 
of  the  convent  of  Yenne,  I  left  Savoy  to  return 
to  Spain,  where  I  arrived  safely,  though  I  had  to 
cross  a  large  portion  of  the  French  territory 
without  a  passport.  On  my  arrival  at  the  army 
I  was  promoted,  and  received  the  grade  of  sub- 
lieutenant. 

Our  army  was  then  of  an  entirely  different  as- 
pect. We  no  longer  counted  our  forces  by 
bands  of  twenty  or  thirty  men,  but  by  thousands. 
We  wandered  no  longer  among  the  mountains, 
but  came  down  into  the  plain,  and  soon  we 


58  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

longed  for  pillage.  In  our  Carlist  army  this  cry 
was  heard :  "  We  are  weary  of  suffering  ;  we 
will  conquer  or  die ;"  and  those  generals  who 
were  unwilling  to  lead  us  to  the  capture  of  towns 
and  villages,  were  assassinated  or  driven  away. 

Among  the  generals  whom  we  had  successive- 
ly was  one  named  Don  Carlos,  Count  of  Spain, 
(who  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  Don  Carlos, 
brother  of  Ferdinand  VII.  and  pretender  to  the 
crown.)  The  cruelty  and  brutality  of  this  man 
are  too  well  known  to  need  a  description  here ; 
yet  I  cannot  avoid  mentioning  two  deeds  accom- 
plished by  his  order,  which  will  show  the  ex- 
treme barbarity  with  which  we  acted,  and  the 
great  necessity  in  which  we  ought  to  feel  our- 
selves of  praying  for  Spain,  my  dearly  beloved 
and  unhappy  country.  May  the  Lord  have  mer- 
cy on  her,  and  put  a  stop  to  her  desolation,  by 
sending  forth  the  light  of  his  holy  gospel  ! 

Thirty-six  miles  distant  from  the  Eastern  Pyr- 
enees, was  a  pretty  little  town,  named  Ripoll  ; 
situated  between  two  rivers,  and  surrounded  by 
two  fortifications,  containing  2800  souls,  and 
famed  for  its  manufactures  of  firearms.  In 
1838  the  Count  of  Spain  presented  himself  be- 
fore it  with  10,000  men  and  besieged  it  during 


SPANISH    MONK.  59 

fifteen  days.     The  town  was  defended  by  200 
soldiers,  besides  the  militia.     There  was  also 
a  numerous  company  of  young  women,  armed 
with  lances,  who  fought  courageously,  to  protect 
themselves  from  outrages,  which  they  remem- 
bered but  too  well  having  been  subjected  to  in 
1837,   when  the  town  surrendered  to  General 
Orbistondo.     Notwithstanding  the  active  resist- 
ance of  the  besieged,  who  twice  repulsed  the 
enemy,  the  town  became  the  prey  of  the  Carlists 
at  the  third  assault.     Then  Don  Carlos,  acting 
as   Nero   might   have   done,   exclaimed :  "  My 
brave  soldiers,  all  is  yours !  do  not  even  spare 
the  suckling  babes ;  cut  them  in  pieces  !     All 
you  do  will  be  right ;  and  the  one  who  will  have 
mercy  and  spare  one  inhabitant  shall  immedi- 
ately be  shot."     These  words  electrified  the  ar- 
my, who  instantly  scaled  the  town  walls. 

The  besieged  took  refuge  in  a  large  church, 
but  in  vain ;  the  only  persons  who  were  saved, 
were  a  few  women,  who  had  fled  into  a  very 
small  church.  All  the  rest  perished  ;  neither 
the  hoary  heads  of  the  aged,  the  tears  of  the  fe- 
males, nor  the  cries  of  infancy  were  sufficient 
to  arrest  the  tigers  in  their  career  of  de- 
struction. Women  were  first  dishonored,  and 


60  THE    LIFE    Or    A 

then  destroyed  by  the  sword ;  fathers  were 
spared  until  they  had  witnessed  the  dishonor  of 
their  daughters,  and  then  murdered  with  them. 
And  when  the  general  had  witnessed  the  whole 
of  these  atrocious  acts  of  cruel  imitation  of  Ne- 
ro's, he  ordered  fire  to  be  set  at  the  four  corners 
of  the  unfortunate  town,  which  was  entirely  de- 
stroyed. Even  this  awful  destruction  could  not 
satisfy  the  barbarous  propensity  of  General  Don 
Carlos ;  even  in  sight  of  the  smoke  of  the  burn- 
ing town,  he  exclaimed  to  his  soldiers:  "  Come 
on,  my  men,  and  follow  your  general,  he  will 
again  conduct  you  to  victory ;  and,  with  the 
same  bravery,  Moya  will  be  yours."  ....  Alas ! 
what  a  victory !  It  was  again  an  opportunity  of 
shedding  blood.  Moya  was  a  small  town  like 
Ripoll,  and  at  the  distance  of  sixty  miles ;  the 
general  had  premeditated  to  destroy  it,  and  he 
loved  to  accomplish  his  designs,  however  cruel 
they  might  be. 

Moya  was  taken,  though  not  without  much 
effort  on  the  part  of  its  inhabitants  to  save  it. 
The  same  scenes  of  cruelty  were  perpetrated  as 
far  as  the  regular  army  was  concerned :  the  in- 
habitants were  spared  their  lives,  but  nothing 
else.  He  made  them  all  go  out  of  the  town, 


SPANISH    MONK.  61 

and  gave  the  order  to  set  it  on  fire.  When  the 
flames  were  raging,  and  had  already  destroyed 
three  fourths  of  the  residences  of  the  unfortu- 
nate inhabitants,  touched  by  the  cries  and  sup- 
plication of  the  unhappy  population,  our  com- 
mander ordered  us  to  quench  the  devouring  ele- 
ment, and  though  at  last  we  succeeded  in  doing 
so,  yet  it  became  impossible  to  save  even  one 
house  entire. 

This  destruction  of  Moya  puts  me  in  mind  of 
an  event  that  occurred  to  me,  which  proves,  in 
a  remarkable  manner,  the  special  protection  of 
my  divine  Father,  and  the  design  He  had  that  I 
should  be  spared  to  work  one  day  in  His  vine- 
yard. 

About  fifteen  days  after  the  destruction  of 
Moya,  and  while  nearly  nine  miles  distant  from 
it,  whilst  we  were  every  instant  expecting  the 
army  of  our  enemies,  my  company  was  desig- 
nated to  be  on  the  watch  in  advance  of  our  ar- 
ray. I  fulfilled  my  duty  ;  and,  not  having  dis- 
covered any  traces  of  the  enemy,  I  directed  my 
company  back  towards  our  camp.  On  our  way 
we  had  to  pass  through  the  unfortunate  town  of 
Moya,  in  which  I  tarried  with  my  servant,  hav- 
ing given  charge  of  the  company  to  the  corporal. 
6 


62  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

I  hurried  not,  believing  the  enemy  yet  far  dis- 
tant. We  entered  what  had  been  the  inn,  and 
where  now  there  was  only  one  room,  in  which 
were  a  few  wretched  chairs,  a  broken  table,  and 
a  closet  hidden  merely  by  a  curtain.  Whilst  my 
servant  was  helping  the  good  woman  to  prepare 
my  supper  in  another  room,  spared  by  the  late 
conflagration  in  another  house,  she  perceived 
that  the  town  was  filling  rapidly  with  the  sol- 
diers of  the  queen.  She  immediately  gave  me 
notice  of  it,  and  advised  me  to  escape  as  quickly 
as  I  could.  I  did  not  believe  the  woman,  hav- 
ing, but  the  night  previous,  gone  over  the  whole 
neighborhood,  without  having  perceived  the  least 
sign  of  an  enemy.  However,  seeing  that  she 
persisted  in  her  assertion,  and  begged  that  I 
would  assure  myself  of  the  truth  of  her  words, 
I  went  to  the  window. 

But  what  was  my  surprise  and  my  terror, 
when,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  my  sight  encounter- 
ed the  enemy's  soldiers  !  Immediately  turning 
round,  I  addressed  her  with  much  earnest- 
ness :  "  Madam,  my  life  is  in  your  hands,  hide 
me  in  some  corner,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  open 
the  door."  "  Sir,"  said  she,  not  less  frightened 
than  I  was,  "  how  can  I  hide  you  any  where  ? 


SPANISH    MONK.  63 

This  room  is  all  that  remains  of  my  former  spa- 
cious home  ;  your  party  have  burnt  the  whole." 
I  renewed  my  demand  with  impatience ;  and, 
being  in  the  greatest  anxiety,  I  even  threatened 
her  life ;  but,  having  no  other  resource,  I  placed 
myself  in  the  clothes-press  and  said  to  her  :  "  Be- 
ware, Madam!    my  company   know   that  I   am 
here  ;  and,  if  you   betray  me,  they  will   surely 
take  revenge  on  you.     If,  on  the  contrary,  you 
try  your  best  to  save  me,  you  shall  be  recom- 
pensed."    I  had  hardly  done  speaking,   when 
some  one  knocked  at  the  door,  and  eleven  sol- 
diers of  Christina  entered  the  room.     It  is  ut- 
terly impossible  to  express  the  state  of  mind  in 
which  I  was  then.     Methought  I  saw  the  enemy 
as  though  there  had  been  no  curtain  between  us. 
The  first  thing  they  inquired  was,  if  the  wo- 
man  had  seen   any  Carlists,  to  which  she  an- 
swered very  composedly  in  the  negative.     They 
asked  for   food   and  drink ;    and,   whilst  these 
were  being  prepared,  they  mourned  over  the 
misfortunes  of  the  town  of  Moya,  in  which  we 
were,  and  which  had  been  burnt  by  my  own 
party.     I  feared  that  the  woman,  meeting  with 
sympathy  on  her  lamented  loss,  would  betray  me 
to  them  ;  and  my  dread  was  so  intense,  that  an 


64  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

abundant  cold  sweat  ran  down  my  body,  which 
trembled  as  in  a  severe  fit  of  fever-chill.  I  lifted 
my  eyes  towards  Heaven,  at  least,  I  thought  I 
did  ;  and  said,  "  Oh  !  thrice  holy  mother  of  our 
Lord  !  Virgin  Protectress  !  have  mercy  on  me  ! 
If  thou  deignest  keep  me  from  harm  ;  and,  if  I 
ever  become  a  priest,  I  promise  to  consecrate  to 
thee  three  masses  yearly.  Oh !  blessed  Virgin 
Mary,  I  will  say  four,  even  if  I  never  become  a 
priest,"  (and  this  I  afterwards  faithfully  per- 
formed at  Besancon,)  "  remember  me,  oh !  good 
Mother !  and  do  not  permit  me  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  my  enemies,  who  are  also  thine."  I 
prayed  thus  all  the  time  ;  and,  not  only  to  Mary, 
but  to  every  saint  I  could  think  of,  and  whose 
name  was  presented  to  my  memory. 

This  I  have  wished  to  relate  here,  that  the 
glory  of  God  might  be  the*  more  effectually  ap- 
parent in  my  case,  showing  from  what  depth  of 
real  idolatry  I  have  been  brought  to  the  blessed 
light  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  If  God  Al- 
mighty, whom  I  forgot  to  implore,  had  also  for- 
gotten me,  unworthy  as  I  was  of  his  notice  and 
compassionate  mercy,  what  would  have  become 
of  me  ?  And  of  what  avail  might  have  been  all 
the  prayers  that  I  addressed  to  beings,  who  had 


SPANISH    MONK.  65 

only  been  mortal  sinners  like  myself?  Does 
not  St.  Paul  tell  us,  that  there  is  but  one  media- 
tor between  God  and  man,  our  blessed  Redeem- 
er Jesus  Christ?  (1  Tim.  2:5.)  But  I  could 
only  address  those  whom  I  had  been  taught  to 
believe  could  help  me ;  the  true  source  of  bless- 
ings I  knew  not ;  or,  if  I  did  know  His  name,  it 
was  only  through  a-  crowd  of  other  intercessors' 
names,  and  I  never  addressed  myself  directly  to 
Him. — Notwithstanding,  I  was  saved;  not  by 
those  to  whom  my  prayers  were  addressed,  but 
by  the  divine  protection  of  Him,  who  gives  and 
takes  away  life  at  His  pleasure,  and  always  for 
good  purposes.  Yes,  oh  !  heavenly  Father ! 
Thou  alone  kept  me  safe  in  that  imminent  dan- 
ger, and  thou  only  canst  protect  me  through 
good  or  evil.  Oh,  God  Almighty  !  grant  that 
I  may  be  thankful  to  thee  with  all  my  heart. 

God  did  indeed  watch  over  me ;  and  this  was 
the  way  in  which  he  permitted  that  I  should  be 
saved  from  danger  of  my  life  for  that  time.  A 
quarter  of  an  hour  after  they  had  come  in,  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Queen  Christina  left  the  room.  Fif- 
teen minutes  is  a  short  space  of  time  ;  and  yet  it 
was  to  me  almost  interminable.  I  counted  each  se- 
cond, with  inexpressible  anxiety.  When  I  saw 
6* 


66  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

them  go  out,  my  agitation  became  less  intolera- 
ble, and  very  soon  the  servant  was  the  only 
person  in  the  room.  Whilst  doing  her  work,  she 
had  taken  the  precaution  not  to  turn  her  eyes 
towards  the  side  of  the  room  where  I  was  hid, 
and  she  continued  to  do  so,  until  the  arrival  of 
her  mistress,  who  had  seen  the  soldiers  out  of 
the  street,  so  as  to  be  more  sure.  She  came  to 
me  full  of  joy,  and  said  :  "  Sir,  you  can  go  now 
without  fear."  Oh !  what  relief  !  what  a  joyful 
sensation  I  experienced  !  It  was  so  great  and 
so  sudden,  that,  in  coming  out  of  my  hiding- 
place,  I  lost  my  senses.  The  two  women  took 
every  care  of  me,  and  brought  me  to.  As  soon 
as  I  had  come  to  my  senses,  I  prepared  to  leave 
them.  After  having  expressed  my  gratitude  for 
their  kind  attention,  I  offered  to  them  all  the 
valuables  I  had  with  me,  namely,  my  gold  watch 
and  my  purse,  though  unfortunately  this  last  was 
not  well  filled.  I  asked  for  my  man  servant ; 
but  alas  !  What  a  deplorable  end  had  he  met 
with  !  A  few  steps  from  the  door  we  found  one 
of  his  hands ;  and  we  soon  learned  that  his 
whole  body  had  been  cut  in  pieces.  When  I 
ascertained  the  fact,  I  shuddered,  my  sight  grew 
dim,  and  it  seemed  as  if  a  thick  cloud  was  over 


SPANISH    MONK.  67 

my  eyes  ;  my  whole  body  was  instantly  covered 

with  large  red  lumps,  and  again  I  lost  my  senses. 

There  was  no  time  to  be  lost;  and  the  women 

atrain  brought  me  back  with  affectionate  care: 

O  O  ' 

but  I  had  experienced  a  great  change  in  my 
spirits.  Notwithstanding  my  great  weakness,  I 
was  in  haste  to  leave  the  place  as  quietly  as  I 
could,  and,  with  extraordinary  exertion,  I  reach- 
ed the  spot  where  my  company  had  taken  ref- 
uge. They  were  all  greatly  astonished  to  see 
me,  for  they  supposed  I  had  been  cut  to  pieces. 
Tell  me,  reader,  was  it  not  God  who  watched 
over  me  ?  Ah  !  His  mercy  alone  could  do  it ; 
for  what  was  I  ?  A  wretched  sinner,  continually 
offending  Him,  and  shedding  the  blood  of  my 
fellows.  How  much  do  I  owe  to  that  merciful 
Saviour  ! — But  continue  with  me  the  course  of 
my  life,  and  we  will  see  that  His  arm  upheld  me 
in  the  midst  of  many  dangers. 


68  THE    LIFE    OF    A 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Defeat  of  the  Carlist  Army. — How  I  met  with  the  Word  of 
God. — I  enter  the  Seminary. — Protestant  Arguments. — 
Interview  with  a  Protestant  Pastor. — My  resolution  to 
leave  the  Seminary  overcome. 

IN  1839,  Maroto,  General-in-chief  of  the  army 
of  Don  Carlos,  betrayed  the  forces  under  his 
command  to  General  Espartero,  by  the  treaty  of 
Bergara.  On  the  appointed  day,  he  drew  up 
the  army  in  front  of  that  of  Espartero,  under  pre- 
tence of  giving  battle ;  and  at  the  moment  of  at- 
tack it  was  discovered  that  the  powder  in  the 
guns  was  worthless,  and  could  not  be  used.  Sur- 
rounded by  unexpected  forces,  and  without  the 
means  of  defence,  40,000  men  yielded  their 
arms  to  the  General  Espartero.  Ten  thousand 
men  escaped,  with  Don  Carlos  himself  who  was 
present,  and  fled  to  the  territory  of  France. 
Thus  the  army  of  Navarre  was  destroyed,  and 
those  of  Arragon  and  Catalonia  only  remained. 


SPANISH    MONK.  69 

But  notwithstanding  the  obstinacy  and  courage 
of  the  last-named  armies  they  were  driven  by 
Espartero  from  place  to  place,  till  on  the  6th  of 
July,  1840,  we  were  forced  to  enter  France,  un- 
der the  command  of  General  Cabrera;  we  num- 
bered 30,000  men.  In  the  city  of  Perpignan 
we  received  an  order  from  our  so-called  king, 
Don  Carlos,  which  promoted  the  sub-officers  to 
the  grade  of  officers  in  the  army,  and  decided 
that  they  should  be  paid  as  such  by  the  French 
Government,  which  had  promised  this  upon  con- 
dition of  our  entry  into  France. 

The  life  I  had  led  in  the  war,  had  made  me  a 
kind  of  madman.  I  was  hard-hearted,  and  looked 
upon  every  stranger  with  suspicion,  or  rather 
I  considered  him  as  my  enemy ;  so  that  I  never 
bought  a  morsel  of  bread  or  a  drop  of  wine,  with- 
out making  the  seller  taste  it  before  I  put  it  to 
my  mouth.  I  was  habitually  under  the  fear  of 
poison ;  and  my  temper  had  become  so  irritable, 
hasty,  and  violent,  that  I  was  ready  to  accuse 
any  one  of  an  intention  to  kill  me,  on  the  slight- 
est suspicion.  I  lived  according  to  the  familiar 
saying  :  We  must  die  some  time ;  it  is  as  well  to 
die  to-day. 

We   remained   eleven   days   encamped  near 


70  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

\ 

Perpignan,  till  the  French  government  decided  to 
give  to  each  officer  a  passport  for  certain  cities 
of  France.  I  received  a  passport  for  Besanqon, 
which  was  the  destination  of  the  priests  and  the 
inferior  officers.  In  this  city  I  met  with  the  cu- 
rate of  my  native  place,  who,  like  myself  had  ta- 
ken part  with  the  Carlists  in  the  war.  I  was  in 
the  habit  of  visiting  him  frequently.  One  day  I 
saw  a  book  on  his  table,  and  taking  it  up,  asked 
him,  What  book  is  this?  He  answered,  It  is 
the  Bible.  But  what  is  the  Bible?  The  Bible  is 
the  book  on  which  the  doctrines  of  the  Church 
are  founded.  He  then  made  a  eulogy  of  this 
book,  which  greatly  excited  my  curiosity. 
For,  till  that  day,  neither  at  my  father's  house, 
in  the  convent,  nor  during  my  military  course, 
had  I  ever  heard  the  Bible  spoken  of,  much  less 
seen  a  copy  of  it.1  He  added  that  this  was  a 
work  which  all  priests  ought  to  possess,  but  none 
others.  When  I  requested  him  to  lend  it  to  me, 
he  hesitated,  saying  that  if  I  received  holy  orders 
I  could  then  procure  it.  After  much  persuasion, 
he  permitted  me  to  take  it. 

1  It  is  true  that  I  read  short  extracts  from  the  gospels 
in  the  Breviary  and  the  Missal  ;  but  the  word  Bible,  I  had 
never  heard  before. 


SPANISH    MONK.  71 

Is  was  proposed  to  me  to  enter  the  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  of  Besanqon  ;  I  accepted  the  pro- 
position with  eagerness,  for  I  had  no  higher  wish 
in  this  world  than  to  become  a  priest,  so  that  I 
could  return  to  Spain,  there  to  thunder  anathe- 
mas from  the  pulpit  on  all  those  who  had  taken 
part  against  the  ministers  of  the  sanctuary.     At 
the  same  time  desirous  of  fulfilling  the  wishes  of 
my  parents,  I  yielded  to  the  curate  of  my  native 
place,  who  presented  me  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Besanqon.     The  latter,  after  having  asked  me 
some  questions,  required  certificates  respecting 
my  monastic  and  military  life,  whereupon  he  per- 
mitted me  to  enter  the  Seminary,  where  I  studied 
Theology  during  one  year,  as  is  stated  in  the 
certificate  which  the  Superior  of  the  Seminary 
gave  rne,  and  which  bears  the  legalization  of  the 
Archbishop. 

It  is  the  custom  in  the  Seminary  that  the  can- 
didates should  retain  for  three  weeks  their  secu- 
lar dress,  to  give  them  the  opportunity  of  making 
a  general  confession  to  a  priest,  of  all  the  sins 
which  they  committed  during  their  lives  before 
entering  the  institution.  This  I  did,  laying  at 
the  feet  of  the  confessor  the  levities  of  my  con- 
science, without  considering  the  blood  which  I 


TO  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

had  shed  as  criminal,  for  I  only  regretted  that  I 
had  not  shed  more,  firmly  believing  that  my  ac- 
tions had  been  sanctioned  by  the  Almighty,  as 
that  blood  was  that  of  His  enemies.  Not  only 
thus  ;  I  do  not  doubt  that  if  on  my  entry  into 
France  one  of  the  enemies  of  Rome  had  been 
pointed  out  to  me,  I  would  have  plunged  my 
dagger  into  his  bosom. 

When  this  general  confession  had  been  made, 
I  relinquished  the  military  dress  and  put  on  the 
cassock.  I  began  a  course  of  theology ;  and  I 
did  not  forget  daily  to  peruse  my  Latin  Vulgate. 
Whilst  reading  this  divine  book,  I  stopped  with 
interest  at  such  passages  as  showed  to  me  that 
mortal  men  had  no  power  to  remit  sins ;  that  it 
was  through  Jesus  alone  that  I  could  obtain  for- 
giveness, "  in  whom  we  have  redemption  through 
his  blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to 
the  riches  of  his  grace;"1  that  it  was  by  faith  in 
Christ  alone  that  I  could  be  saved,  for  "  he  that 
believeth  on  Him  is  not  condemned  :  but  he  that 
believeth  not  is  condemned  already,  because  he 
hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of  the  only  begot- 
ten Son  of  God."2  But,  alas !  notwithstanding 

1  Eph.  1 :  7.     Rom.  3  :  24.        8  John  3  :  18,  36. 


SPANISH    MONK.  73 

the  truth  and  force  of  these  and  many  like  pas- 
sages, which  I  read  without  much  reflection,  I 
did  not  recognize  this  call  of  the  Saviour,  and  I 
drove  away  the  slight  impressions  which  they 
made  on  me. 

But  a  merciful  God  chose  to  rescue  my  wretch- 
ed soul  from  the  state  of  ignorance,  error  and 
idolatry  in  which  it  was  lying;  and  for  this  pur- 
pose he  willed  that  the  very  errors  which  were 
taught  me  as  the  means  of  attacking  and  destroy- 
ing the  Gospel,  should  lead  me  to  defend  the 
truth  of  the  Bible  publicly.  One  day,  while  an- 
swering the  argument  of  a  fellow-student  in  fa- 
vor of  the  existence  of  a  Purgatory,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  whole  college,  I  made  use  of  quota- 
tions from  the  Bible,  which  showed  me  that  far 
from  sustaining  certain  doctrines  of  the  Romish 
Church,  as  the  curate  had  told  me,  there  were 
texts  in  direct  opposition  with  them.  My  oppo- 
nent was  so  embarrassed  by  my  answers,  that  the 
Professor  thought  proper  to  come  to  his  help,  and 
ended  by  commanding  me  to  be  silent,  and  say- 
ing, "  A  Protestant  could  not  say  more."  I  was 
astonished  beyond  measure  to  learn  from  my 
teacher  himself  that  the  Protestants  could  argue 
according  to  the  Word  of  God,  although  they 
7 


74  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

were  heretics,  as  I  then  believed.  As  scon  as  I 
had  returned  to  my  room  I  was  honored  by  a 
visit  from  the  Superior  of  the  Seminary  and  the 
Professor,  who,  after  some  conversation,  forbade 
me  to  read  the  Bible.  As  it  was  not  mine,  they 
could  not  take  it  from  me ;  but  they  ordered  me 
to  send  it  back  to  its  owner ;  and,  though  with 
regret,  I  obeyed.  The  very  interdiction  im- 
posed on  my  reading  the  Word  of  God  increased 
within  me  the  desire  to  know  it  better,  as  well  as 
to  learn  whether  the  Protestants  could  really  ar- 
gue from  it  as  I  had  done,  and  as  the  Professor 
had  said  they  could.  A  few  days  after  I  formed 
the  resolution  to  go  and  see  the  "  Chief  of  the 
Protestants" — I  did  not  know  what  title  to  give 
him — in  order  to  learn  from  him  what  were  their 
doctrines. 

On  the  llth  of  June,  1841,  in  the  eighth 
month  of  rny  studies  at  the  Seminary,  T  called  on 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Sandoz,  pastor  at  Besanc,on.  I 
imparted  to  him  my  doubts,  my  wishes,  and  the 
controversy  which  I  had  sustained  at  the  Semi- 
nary. I  begged  him  to  inform  me  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Protestant  Church.  The 
kind  pastor  replied  :  "  Sir,  I  will  be  happy  to 
satisfy  you  ;  but  first  let  us  begin  by  prayer." — 


SPANISH    MONK.  75 

We  knelt  down.  I  can  say  that  never  before 
that  day  had  I  heard  a  prayer  from  the  heart, 
such  as  that  heretical  pastor  made.  In  my  child- 
hood, and  in  the  convent  also,  I  only  recited 
written  prayers,  and  almost  all  these  in  Latin. 
But  the  mouth  of  this  priest  without  a  cassock, 
poured  forth  the  sentiments  which  filled  his 
heart.  He  prayed  with  much  earnestness  for 
those  whose  souls  were  yet  in  darkness,  that  the 
light  of  salvation  might  shine  upon  them.  He 
then  arose  from  his  knees,  and  spoke  to  me  in 
these  words  :  "  My  dear  sir,  I  rejoice  that  the 
good  tidings  of  salvation,  as  contained  in  the 
Holy  Bible,  have  reached  you,  and  waked  up 
your  conscience.  If  it  be  the  wish  of  your  heart 
to  become  one  of  the  flock  of  Christ,  the  Bible 
will  teach  you  what  to  believe,  and  what  to  do, 
to  make  your  peace  with  God,  and  to  share  in  His 
eternal  glory ;  for  that  inspired  book  can  render 
you  wise  unto  salvation,  through  faith  in  Christ. 
It  was  written  that  you  might  believe  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that,  believ- 
ing, you  might  have  life  through  His  name.  As 
for  the  dogmas  of  the  Protestant  religion,  they 
teach  that  your  duty  consists,  first,  in  acknow- 
ledging yourself  to  be  a  condemned  sinner,  un- 


76  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

worthy  of  forgiveness,  and  incapable  of  doing 
any  thing  acceptable  to  God,  before  having  been 
regenerated  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  secondly,  ac- 
knowledging Jesus  as  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh,  and  in  recognizing  Him  as  your  only  hope 
of  salvation  and  eternal  life ;  thirdly,  in  receiv- 
ing the  Bible  as  divinely  inspired,  and  as  the 
only  rule  of  faith  and  conduct ;  fourthly,  the  ab- 
solute necessity  of  sanctification  of  the  heart  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  good  works  as  testimony 
that  your  faith  is  alive  and  works  by  love. 

"God  has  very  greatly  favored  you  in  open- 
ing your  eyes,  and  showing  you  that  you  are  in 
a  wrong  path.  You  must  reply  to  his  call.  If 
you  sincerely  desire  to  save  your  soul,  leave  the 
Seminary,  and  give  yourself  up  entirely  to  the 
Lord." 

I  had  not  anticipated  that  the  good  clergyman 
would  have  suggested  the  propriety  of  my  leav- 
ing the  Seminary,  to  save  my  soul ;  I  had  sup- 
posed that  he  would  merely  have  explained  to 
my  satisfaction  the  prominent  points  of  the 
Protestant  faith.  His  advice  to  forsake  my 
theological  studies,  brought  this  reflection  to  my 
mind  :  "  What  will  the  world  say,  to  see  one  of 
my  nation,  so  faithful  to  the  doctrines  of  Rome, 


SPANISH    MONK.  77 

reject  her  dogmas,  and  thus  show  that  he  looks 
upon  his  countrymen  as  being  in  error  ?"  Then 
came  the  presentiment  that  the  love  of  my  rela- 
tives would  be  turned  into  hatred,  so  that  the 
hope  of  returning  to  my  beloved  country  was  to 
be  abandoned ;  that  I  would  thus  give  up  the 
profession  which  was  the  object  of  my  ambition 
and  desire,  and  to  which  my  parents  had  them- 
selves directed  my  attention.  I  was  so  absorbed 
by  these  reflections,  that  I  stood  before  the  pas- 
tor, without  knowing  what  to  answer.  He  saw 
plainly  that  I  was  troubled,  and  said  to  me  : 
"  Sir,  you  should  leave  the  Seminary  without  re- 
gard to  worldly  considerations  ;  but  I  must  tell 
you  that  you  will  have  a  great  deal  to  suffer,  if 
you  wish  to  be  faithful  to  the  call  of  the  Lord. 
It  is  only  by  taking  up  your  cross  that  you  can 
follow  Jesus ;  and  it  is  through  great  tribu- 
lation, and  many  hardships,  that  we  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  your  father  and  your  mother  forsake 
you,  the  Lord  will  take  you  up.  If  your  brethren 
in  the  flock  abandon  you,  other  brethren  will 
take  you  by  the  hand  ;  and  if,  by  renouncing  the 
profession  of  a  priest,  you  lose  the  means  of  liv- 
ing, be  not  discouraged  ;  for,  young  as  you  are, 
7* 


70  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

you  can  easily  earn  your  bread  by  the  labor  of 
your  hands." 

These  reflections  were  accompanied  by  quo- 
tations from  the  Scriptures,  which  he  pointed 
out  to  me ;  and  I  was  in  a  situation  similar  to 
that  of  the  soldiers  of  whom  John  speaks  as  hav- 
ing been  sent  to  arrest  our  Lord,  and  who  were 
so  touched  by  His  heavenly  words,  that  they  ex- 
claimed :  "  Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 

Finally,  I  decided  tojquit  the  Seminary  ;  and 
the  pastor,  having  given  me  a  Testament  and 
several  tracts,  went  with  me  to  a  porcelain  fac- 
tory, to  seek  employment  for  me,  which  I  ob- 
tained easily,  and  I  agreed  to  begin  the  next 
day.  The  good  minister  accompanied  me  as 
far  as  the  entrance  of  the  Seminary,  and,  on 
parting,  said  :  "  Take  courage,  my  young  friend ; 
I  fear  they  may  succeed  in  keeping  you."  But 
I,  like  Peter,  trusting  in  my  own  strength,  re- 
plied': "  Do  not  fear  that,  sir ;  they  cannot  do 
it."  I  called  immediately  on  the  Father  Supe- 
rior, to  give  him  back  some  books  which  I  had 
borrowed  of  him.  I  thanked  him  for  his  kind- 
ness to  me,  and  told  him  of  my  intention  to 
leave,  stating  as  my  reason  for  so  doing  that 
they  did  not  teach  the  true  doctrines  of  religion, 


SPANISH    MONK.  79 

and  that  I  only  desired  to  follow  such  as  were  to 
be  found  in  the  Bible.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
describe  the  energy,  the  anger,  the  gentleness, 
with  which  the  Superior  successively  spoke  to 
me.  I  will  only  say,  that  he  left  no  way  untried 
to  seduce  me. 

He  threatened  to  write  to  my  parents,  from 
whom  I  could  expect  nothing  but  their  curses. 
He  said  that,  if  I  persisted  in  my  resolution  to 
become  a  Protestant,  I  would  be  hated,  despised 
and  repulsed  by  the  world;  that  I  would  be  un- 
happy in  the  body  in  this  world,  and  lose  my 
soul  for  the  next.  He  contrasted  this  prospect 
with  the  happiness  I  might  enjoy  as  a  priest. 
"  The  priest,"  said  he,  "  is  respected  even  by 
his  enemies ;  he  can  go  every  where,  to  the 
court  or  the  cottage,  and  all  uncover  their  heads 
and  bow  before  him." 

Alas  !  I  was  not  yet  converted  unto  Thee,  O 
my  Saviour  !  and  since,  as  Thou  hast  said,  "  no 
man  can  come  unto  Thee  except  the  Father 
draw  him;"1  and  since,  moreover,  my  heart  was 
still  bound  up  in  the  things  of  this  world,  I  could 
not  but  contrast  the  words  of  the  Protestant  pas- 

1  John  6  :  44. 


80  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

tor,  who  offered  me  no  flattering  prospects,  with 
those  of  the  Superior,  who  promised  me  comfort, 
temporal  ease,  the  treasures  and  grandeurs  of 
this  world.  I  did  not  suspect  that  the  Superior's 
heart  was  full  of  bitterness  and  cruelty,  while 
his  lips  uttered  gentle  words.  I  determined  to 
remain,  and  continued  four  months  in  the  Semi- 
nary. 


SPANISH    MONK.  81 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  sacrilegious  Experiment.  —  I  leave  the  Seminary. — 
The  Spanish  Priest. — I  am  driven  to  Langres. — Un- 
happy situation  there. — The  Spanish  character. 

No  one  will  be  astonished  at  this  result ;  for 
even  the  most  ignorant  are  aware  that  the  Ro- 
man Catholics  spare  neither  threats  nor  promises 
in  order  to  allure  Protestants.  To  one  they  of- 
fer the  fortunate  termination  of  a  lawsuit ;  to 
another  a  lucrative  employment,  a  civil  situation, 
or  worldly  honors,  etc.  But  what  a  difference 
there  is  between  the  religion  of  Rome  and  that 
of  Christ !  The  ministers  of  Jesus  represent  to 
us  the  very  profession  of  the  Gospel  as  insepara- 
ble from  the  affliction,  persecution  and  shame  of 
the  cross.  I  know  this  by  my  own  experience ; 
for  I  was  not  led  to  believe  otherwise  than  that 
it  would  be  with  me  as  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  of 
whom  our  Lord  Jesus  said,  speaking  of  his  con- 


82 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 


version  :  "  I  will  show  him  how  great  things  he 
must  suffer  for  my  name's  sake."1 

Having  made  up  my  mind  to  continue  to  stay 
at  the  Seminary,  I  was  frequently  visited  by  the 
Superior.  As  he  knew  that  I  had  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sandoz,  he  suspected 
that  he  had  given  me  some  heretical  work.  He 
therefore  searched  my  room  and  found  a  Testa- 
ment and  some  tracts,  which  he  took  away  and 
burned.  Happily  my  Vulgate  Bible  was  still  at 
the  house  of  my  friend,  or  else  it  would  have  un- 
dergone the  same  fate. 

Although  deprived  of  the  Word  of  God,  I  still 
remembered  having  read  that  "  We  are  justified 
freely  by  His  grace,  through  the  redemption  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;"  "  In  whom  we  have  redemp- 
tion through  His  blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
according  to  the  riches  of  His  grace;"  "He 
will  subdue  our  iniquities,  and  will  cast  all  our 
sins  into  the  depths  of  the  sea ;"  "  Not  imput- 
ing their  trespasses  unto  them  ;"2  as  well  a? 
the  relation  of  David's  answer  to  his  servants, 
on  the  death  of  his  child,  2  Sam.  12  :  22,  23. 3 

1  Acts  9 :  16. 

2  Rom.  3 :  24.   Eph.  1 :  7.  Micah  7 :  19.    2  Cor.  5 :  19. 

3  It  was   by  means  of  these   passages   that   I   argued 


SPANISH    MONK.  83 

Meditating  on  these  passages,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  existed  no  purgatory,  that 
the  infallibility  of  the  Church  was  more  than 
doubtful,  and  that  many  other  doctrines  of  the 
kind  were  mere  human  inventions  :  such  as  au- 
ricular confession,  prayers  for  the  dead,  com- 
munion in  one  kind  only,  the  invocation  of 
saints,  the  veneration  of  images,  the  adoration 
of  the  cross  and  of  relics,  celibacy  of  the  priests, 
monastic  vows,  pilgrimages,  rosaries,  jubilees, 
indulgences,  the  sale  of  holy  things,  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Pope,  &c. 

When  I  had  once  discovered  that  Rome  had 
wandered  from  the  truth,  I  could  no  longer  be- 
lieve in  that  which  she  commanded  me  to  be- 
lieve. Thus  my  conscience  was  disturbed,  re- 
proaching me  with  following  errors,  and  yet  I 
could  not  decide  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  God, 
who  said  to  me  :  "  Seek  the  Lord  while  He  may 
be  found,  call  ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near;"1 
"  Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends 
of  the  earth  ;"2  "  Seek  ye  me,  and  ye  shall 

against  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  denying  the  exist- 
ence of  a  purgatory,  &c.,  in  the  discussion  spoken  of  in 
the  preceding  chapter. 

1  Is.  55 :  6.  2  Is.  45  :  22. 


84 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 


live;"1  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest;"2 
"  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;"3  "  Come  out  of  Baby- 
lon, my  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers  of  her 
sins,  and  that  ye  receive  not  of  her  plagues."4 

I  was  on  the  point  of  leaving  the  Seminary ; 
but,  incredulous  as  I  was  with  regard  to  the  in- 
ventions of  Rome,  I  still  hesitated  to  deny  that 
the  host  contained  the  body,  blood,  soul  and  di- 
vinity of  Jesus  Christ.  I  did  not  dare  to  test 
the  truth  of  this  by  making  an  experiment  which 
seemed  to  me  horrible.  One  day,  nevertheless, 
I  took  courage,  and  resolved,  by  committing 
what  Rome  calls  the  most  horrible  sacrilege,  to 
dispel  the  ignorance  in  which  I  was  lying,  and 
to  embrace  with  eagerness,  in  the  struggle  in 
which  I  was  engaged,  the  side  which  this  test 
would  make  victorious. 

On  the  14th  of  September,  1841,  I  came  to 
the  communion  with  the  rest.  Having  received 
the  wafer  on  my  tongue,  I  returned  to  my 
seat,  and  secretly  took  it  from  my  mouth  with 
my  handkerchief.  I  remained  whilst  the  cus 


1  Amos  5:  4.  *  Matt.  11:28.    '  John  3: 3.   4  Rev.  18:4. 


• 


SPANISH    MONK.  85 

ternary  ceremonies  were  performed,  and  when  I 
returned  to  my  chamber,  I  unfolded  my  hand- 
kerchief on  the  table,  holding  a  pin  in  my  hand 
with  which  to  pierce  the  wafer.  But  then,  re- 
flecting that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  was  about 
to  flow,  a  shudder  passed  over  me,  I  could  hard- 
ly stand,  and  I  felt  as  though  my  eyes  would  close 

forever 

At  this  critical  moment  I  ran  toward  the  room 
of  my  confessor,  with  the  intention  of  acknow- 
ledging the  crime  I  had  intended  to  commit. 
When  I  reached  his  door,  I  said  to  myself,  No, 
I  will  return ;  why  should  I  fear  ?  If  the  blood 
flows  I  will  be  a  priest  of  Rome,  and  men  will 
be  converted  by  my  words,  for  all  will  perceive 
this  miracle.  If  the  blood  does  not  flow,  I  will 
this  day  leave  this  house  of  error  and  falsehood. 
— I  went  back,  and,  taking  up  the  pin,  I  stuck 
it  very  gently  into  the  wafer  ....  the  blood  did 
not  flow  !  I  stuck  it  again,  and  again,  till  the 
wafer  was  broken  into  pieces.  Then  seeing 
that  the  bread  was  still  bread,  after  it  had  been 
in  the  priest's  hands  as  before,  on  the  same  day, 
the  10th  of  September,  1841,  at  ten  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  I  went  to  the  room  of  the  Supe- 
rior, to  perform  that  which  fear  had  prevented 
8 

m 


86  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

my  doing  before.  I  requested  him  to  make  out 
a  certificate  of  my  good  conduct.  After  much 
hesitation  he  did  so,  and  gave  it  to  me ;  and  I 
left  the  Seminary  at  that  moment. 

Here  I  can  say  that  hell  itself  seemed  to  be 
let  loose  upon  me.  Persecution  came  npon  me 
from  all  sides,  and  a  new  exile  was  prepared  for 
me. 

As  soon  as  I  had  left  the  Seminary,  I  began 
to  follow  the  trade  of  a  barber,  as  I  had  learned 
it  in  the  convent,  where  it  was  my  duty  to  per- 
form the  tonsure  of  the  monks.  Thus  I  earned 
my  bread,  without  the  necessity  of  importuning 
any  one. 

I  received  one  day  in  my  shop  a  visit  from  a 
distinguished  ecclesiastic,  who  came  to  endeavor 
to  persuade  me  to  retrace  my  steps,  and  become 
reconciled  to  the  Church.  He  was  the  Chap- 
lain of  General  Cabrera.  He  informed  me  that 
the  Archbishop  had  sent  him  to  try  to  induce 
me  to  return  to  the  Seminary.  He  argued  with 
me  for  some  time,  saying  that  I  had  been  de- 
ceived and  seduced,  assuring  me  that  he  had  the 
most  friendly  feelings  towards  me. 

"  You  are  young  and  inexperienced,"  said  he : 
"  you  know  not  what  trials  await  you,  if  you 


SPANISH    MONK.  87 

persevere  in  your  inconsiderate  and  ruinous 
course.  The  Spaniards  will  insult  and  injure 
you.  Your  parents  and  relatives  will  be  ex- 
ceedingly distressed  unless  you  return  ;  and  they 
will  cast  you  oft',  so  that  you  will  be  left  friend- 
less and  destitute. 

"  Vaya  !"  replied  I ;  "do  you  think  to  deter 
me  by  such  means  from  doing  my  duty  ?  Do 
you  not  know  what  Jesus  says  :  '  Fear  not  them 
that  kill  the  body?'  " — I  then  went  on,  with  my 
Bible  in  my  hand,  reading  the  texts  which  had 
produced  the  strongest  effect  on  me,  and  preach- 
ing the  truth  to  him  as  God  enabled  me,  dwell- 
ing particularly  on  the  doctrine  that  no  man 
can  forgive  our  sins,  but  that  Christ  alone  has 
made  atonement  for  them  all.  He  was  struck 
by  the  passages  which  I  repeated  ;  and  when  I 
inquired  of  him  whether  he  had  not  known  all 
this  before,  he  replied  :  "  I  have  read  a  little  in 
the  Bible,  but  I  do  not  remember  these  things. 

'  O 

Can  you  lend  me  that  book  ?"  I  hesitated,  for 
I  supposed  he  only  desired  to  burn  it ;  and  I  led 
him  to  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sandoz,  to 
procure  one  for  him.  He  then  left  me,  and  I 
saw  him  again  in  two  weeks,  but  his  manner 
was  very  different. 


88  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

"  Ramon,"  said  he,  "  you  will  not  be  alone  in 
your  sufferings ;  here  is  one  ready  to  suffer  with 
you  ;  read  this."  He  handed  me  a  letter,  in 
which  I  read,  with  the  greatest  astonishment,  a 
formal  address  to  the  Archbishop,  declaring  that 
he  felt  himself  compelled  by  a  sense  of  duty  to 
renounce  his  ecclesiastical  office  and  all  con- 
nection with  Rome,  whose  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices he  had  discovered  to  be  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God. — This  letter  he  afterwards  sent 
to  the  Archbishop. 

When  I  had  read  this,  he  addressed  me  in  the 
most  affectionate  terms.  "  You  have  rendered 
me,"  said  he,  "  the  greatest  service  in  the  power 
of  man  ;  I  love  you  like  a  father." — We  after- 
wards spent  much  time  together  in  studying  the 
Scriptures. 

We  were  watched  daily  by  our  fellow-coun- 
trymen, who  frequently  insulted  us  for  having 
forsaken  the  religion  of  our  fathers.  Their  ha- 
tred led  them  even  to  form  the  design  of  attack-. 
ing  us  with  blows.  With  this  object,  they 
awaited  us  one  night  at  the  corner  of  a  narrow 
street  in  Besancon.  But  a  Spaniard  had  the 
kindness  to  warn  me  of  the  intentions  of  his 
companions ;  and  I  consequently  refrained  from 


SPANISH    MONK.  89 

passing  through  that  street,  and  even  from  being 
seen  in  the  streets  after  sunset.  But  Garcia  was 
less  careful,  and  was  attacked  by  a  set  of  men, 
and  was  so  severely  beaten  that  for  some  time 
after  he  was  unable  to  leave  his  room.  A  few 
days  after  he  was  followed  by  the  persecutions 
of  the  Archbishop,  who  induced  the  civil  author- 
ities to  force  him  to  leave  the  city ;  he  went  to 
Strasburg,  where  he  met  with  an  English  fam- 
ily, by  whom  he  was  received  With  great  affec- 
tion, and  with  whom  he  has  since  lived. 

As  regards  myself,  the  Archbishop  took  an  in- 
terest in  me  also,  and  kindly  sent  a  Spanish 
colonel  to  me,  who  said  to  me  :  "  The  Arch- 
bishop has  sent  me  to  you,  to  tell  you  that  he 
has  received  an  anonymous  letter  in  Spanish, 
stating  that  if  you  do  not  leave  Besanc.on  you  will 
one  of  these  days  be  stabbed.  And,  lest  that 
should  happen,  the  Archbishop  says  that  it  would 
be  well  for  you  to  leave  the  city  immediately.  He 
desires  me  to  bring  him  back  an  answer,  whether 
you  will  leave  or  not."  I  replied  that  I  would 
go  and  thank  the  Archbishop  myself  for  his  warn- 
ing, and  would  then  express  my  determination. 

Accordingly,  the  next  day,  I  paid  the  unfor- 
tunate visit.  The  Archbishop  repeated  that  I 
8* 


90  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

must  leave  Besanqon  ;  to  which  I  replied,  that  I 
was  too  comfortably  situated  there  to  desire  to 
leave ;  that  I  feared  nothing,  since  I  sought  to 
wrong  no  one. 

The  Archbishop  then  lost  all  patience  with 
me,  and  exclaimed  :  "  Sir,  it  is  my  will  that  you 
leave  the  city  within  twenty-four  hours,  and  if  in 
that  time  you  are  not  gone,  I  will  take  other 
means."  Then  I  answered  :  "  Sir,  if  you  wish 
me  absolutely  to  go,  it  depends  on  you  ;  settle  a 
pension  of  three  francs  per  day  on  me,  and  I  will 
go  whither  you  choose,  providing  it  be  not  to  a 
Seminary." — He  imposed  silence  on  me,  saying 
that  I  had  insulted  him  ;  and,  commanding  me 
to  leave  the  apartment,  went  immediately  to  the 
Prefect,  and  requested  him  to  give  me  a  pass- 
port for  some  distant  place,  with  the  order  to 
leave  directly.1  The  Prefect  could  not  satisfy 
him  ;  "  I  have  received  no  complaint,"  said  he, 
"  from  the  police  relative  to  this  man  ;  and  con- 
sequently I  cannot  make  him  leave  the  station  as- 
signed to  him,  unless  he  asks  for  his  passport  of 
his  own  accord." 

What  will  the  holy  man  do  then  ?     He  has  too 

1  This  I  afterwards  learned  from  the  Sub-Prefect. 


SPANISH    MONK.  91 

much  influence  not  to  pursue  this  matter,  think- 
ing thus  to  terrify  by  my  example  any  Spaniard 
who,  enlightened  by  the  beams  of  Truth,  might 
be  tempted  to  forsake  Rome  and  her  errors  for 
the  Gospel.  He  wrote  to  the  Minister  of  the  Inte- 
rior, and  requested  him  to  assign  to  me  as  a 
forced  residence  the  town  of  Langres,  (Haute- 
Marnc,)  which  he  was  well  acquainted  with, -and 
which  would  answer  his  object  better  than  any 
other,  since  there  are  no  Protestants  there.  In- 
deed he  knew  Langres  very  well,  since  he  had 
once  been  bishop  there.  The  Minister  of  the 
Interior  did  not  fail  to  have  in  consideration  the 
request  of  his  noble  petitioner. 

On  the  21st  of  January,  1842,  I  received  a 
visit  from  a  police  officer,  who  commanded  me 
to  present  myself  to  the  Prefect,  to  hear  a  minis- 
terial decision.  It  was,  that  Langres  had  been 
assigned  as  my  place  of  abode.  The  Prefect  re- 
ceived at  the  same  time  the  express  command  to 
inform  the  authorities  of  that  town  of  my  arrival, 
and  the  Sub-Prefect  was  ordered  to  let  the  Min- 
ister know  whether  I  had  obeyed  his  mandate.  I 
asked  for  three  days  to  prepare  to  leave ;  and  on 
the  24th  January  I  had  to  enter  the  stage-coach 
in  presence  of  two  police  officers,  as  if  I  had 


92  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

been  a  malefactor ;  my  passport  was  delivered  to 
me  only  at  the  moment  that  the  driver  cracked 
his  whip  to  start. 

Here  was  I,  with  only  eighteen  francs  in  my 
pocket,  travelling  towards  a  strange  place,  in  a 
foreign  country,  and  not  knowing  how  I  would 
be  received. 

I  arrived  at  Langres  on  the  25th,  and  stopped 
at  an  inn,  where  rny  eighteen  francs  were  spent 
in  a  few  days.  I  met  there  with  about  twenty 
Spaniards  ;  but  not  one  would  ever  recognize 
me  as  a  countryman ;  for  they  had  been  advised 
by  their  friends  in  Besancon  of  the  occurrences 
there,  and  not  one  ever  came  near  me,  unless  it 
was  to  insult  me.  My  persecutors  took  such 
measures  to  make  me  unfavorably  known  among 
the  inhabitants  that  soon  all  eyes  in  that  town 
were  turned  to  me.  1  could  not  leave  the  house 
without  hearing  these  words  :  "  There  goes  the 
Spanish  monk  ;  look  at  the  seminarist  who  turn- 
ed Protestant.  They  drove  him  from  Besan- 
c,on."  The  inquisitive  would  sometimes  speak 
to  me,  saying  :  "  Is  it  true  that  you  have  become 
a  Protestant  ?  Who  has  bewitched  you,  that 
you  should  enter  a  party  which  ought  to  appear 
suspicious  to  you  on  account  of  its  novelty,  since 


SPANISH    MONK.  93 

it  never  existed  in  any  part  of  the  world  before 
Luther  and  Calvin,  its  authors,  established  that 
religion?  How  could  you  leave  the  Church, 
which  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth, 
which  comes  down  from  the  Apostles  by  the  un- 
interrupted succession  of  its  pastors  ?"  I  an- 
swered them  :  "  Yes,  I  am  a  Protestant,  and  it 
is  by  the  reading  of  the  Bible  that  I  was  bewitch- 
ed. And  as  to  what  you  say  about  my  having 
entered  the  party  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  I  will 
tell  you  that  I  am  of  their  party  so  far  as  thf& 
are  of  the  party  of  the  Bible.  You  err  in  think- 
ing that  the  religion  which  the  Protestants  pro- 
fess was  founded  by  Luther  and  Calvin,  for  it 
draws  its  origin  neither  from  earth  nor  from  any 

man  living  or  dead.     Truth  is  not  to  be  found 

.    *J* 

in  Rome,  since  she  acts  contrary  to  the  com- 
mands of  God  and  of  the  Bible  ;  and  finally,  you 
cannot  speak  of  succession,  since  the  Popes 
have  been  entirely  opposed  to  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  Apostles." 

I  visited  all  the  barbers  of  that  town,  to  see  if 
any  of  them  was  willing  to  employ  me,  and  at 
last  I  succeeded  in  finding  one  who  would  take 
me  without  other  payment  than  my  meals.  But 
three  weeks  had  scarcely  elapsed  0Kbre  he  sent 


94  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

me  away,  telling  me  that  he  was  blamed  by  all, 
and  especially  by  some  priests  who  were  his 
customers,  and  was  unwilling  on  my  account  to 
expose  himself  to  having  his  child  sent  away 
from  the  Seminary  of  that  town,  at  which  he  was 
then. 

What  a  sad  position  was  mine  at  that  moment, 
without  aid  from    the  government,   obliged  to 
consider  myself  as  a  prisoner,  yet  without  re- 
ceiving the  bread  which  the  law  grants  to  pris- 
€ers,  and  contrasting  it  with  my  previous  situa- 
m.     I  wished  to  earn  my  food  merely  by  the 
labor  of  my  hands  ;  I  knew  but  one  trade,  and 
no  one  would  employ  me.     I  was  not  at  liberty 
to  seek  employment  elsewhere,  and  I  could  find 
none  in  the  home  assigned  for  me.     Two  peti- 

o  r 

tions  which  I  addressed  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  to  obtain  permission  to  go  to  Dijon  or 
Strasburg,  where  I  could  readily  have  earned 
my  bread,  were  of  no  effect.  Neither  did  my 
parents  answer  my  letters. 

What  will  become  of  him  to  whose  just  recla- 
mations all  appear  deaf?  How  will  end  the  in- 
cessant persecutions  of  these  strangers,  and  the 
often-repeated  insults  of  his  fellow-countrymen 
even  ?  Whither  will  the  contempt  of  those  peo- 


SPANISH    MONK.  95 

pie  conduct  him,  who  disdainfully  turn  their  fa-  ^ 
ces  from  him  as  soon  as  he  addresses  them  ?  He 
must  fall,  unless  He  who  is  almighty  becomes 
his  support.  If  he  trusts  in  an  arm  of  flesh, 
despair  will  seize  upon  him.  I  acknowledge 
with  sincerity  that  my  soul  at  that  moment  was 
very  sad  and  miserable,  and  more  than  ever  ex- 
posed to  entire  defeat. 

I  shall  perhaps  have  astonished  two  kinds  of 
persons  by  the  relation  of  my  life  from  the  14th 
September,  1841,  till  this  time.  The  uncon-^ 
verted  will  have  said  with  astonishment :  "  What 
a  conversion  took  place  in  this  Spaniard  !"  But 
1  will  say  to  them  :  You,  who  do  not  possess  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  are  too  hasty  in  considering  as 
a  disciple  of  Chjast  one  who  as  yet  in  no  wise 
belonged  to  Iran.  The  ransomed  of  Jesus 
Christ  will  have  perceived  that  I  was  not  yet 
converted  to  Him  who  alone  can  give  ue  life. 
They  will  also  have  been  equally  astonished  at 
the  sight  of  the  courage  with  which,  although 
still  in  error,  I  underwent  all  my  trials.  You, 
my  brethren  in  Christ,  I  will  free  from  your  as- 
tonishment by  saying  a  few  words  with  regard 
t<5  the  Spanish  character. 

One  of  its  principal  traits  is  perseverance. 


96  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

jyhen  a  Spaniard  has  adopted  any  opinion  what- 
Wever,  he  will  die  rather  than  give  it  up.  For 
this  reason,  when  he  knows  of  any  doctrine  op- 
posed to  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth,  he 
cannot'help  condemning  it,  and  even  if  possible 
to  persecute  bitterly  those  who  profess  it.  And 
it  is  very  difficult  to  persuade  him  that  his  belief 
is  erroneous,  that  his  opinion  is  not  that  which 
he  ought  to  hold,  that  his  religion  is  not  the  true 
one.  But  when  he  is  once  convinced,  he  will 
faithful  to  his  conviction,  he  will  courageously 
nounce  his  former  opinion  or  doctrine,  and 
will  firmly  advance  in  the  new  path  in  which 
he  has  entered,  even  if  it  be  a  wrong  one. 

According  to  this  explanation,  you  can  easily 
conceive,  dear  brethren,  how^could  so  ener- 
getically endure  the  persecutions  of  the  Romish 
clergy,  as  well  as  the  unkind  behaviour  of  my 
fellow-countrymen,  my  fellow-exiles. 


SPANISH    MONK.  97 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Despair. — Conversion. — Depart    from    Langres. — Corres- 
pondence with  my  Parents. 

FROM  the  time  of  my  leaving  the  Seminary  till 
the  month  of  March,  1842, 1  was  in  a  state  which 
it  is  impossible  to  describe.  I  had  scarcely  any 
religious  feeling  in  my  heart.  I  protested  against 
Rome,  because  I  saw  that  its  instructions  were 
contrary  to  those  of  the  Bible,  although  I  was 
not  very  fond  of  reading  that  holy  Book.  When 
I  attempted  to  read  a  chapter  of  it  for  the  pur- 
pose of  finding  consolation,  I  almost  always 
closed  it  before  I  had  read  a  verse.  I  was  dead 
in  my  sins ;  I  could  not  pray ;  I  could  not  be- 
lieve ;  or  if  I  believed,  my  faith  was  not  watered 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  a  dead  faith !  Fi- 
nally, I  was  without  God  and  without  hope,  and 
yet,  astonishing  fact !  I  endured  all  manner  of 
9 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

ution  for  the  sake  of  the  love  I  bore  to  the 
contained  in  the  Bible. 

One  night,  my  countrymen,  not  knowing  what 
more  to  do  to  insult  me,  came  with  their  guitars 
before  my  window  to  give  me  a  mock  serenade. 
When  I  attempted  to  say  a  few  words  to  them, 
praying  them  to  leave  me  in  peace,  I  received  a 
violent  blow  on  my  forehead  from  a  stone.  I 
then  shut  myself  up  in  my  room,  and  passed  that 
night  in  the  greatest  anguish  of  mind. 

On  the  next  morning  I  went  to  take  a  walk 
in  the  environs  of  the  city.  I  sat  down  by  the 
side  of  a  fountain.  My  mind  was  agitated  and 
pensive.  I  took  up  a  Spanish  Testament  which 
I  had  with  me,  to  read  a  chapter,  and  thus  to 
drive  away  the  evil  thoughts  that  my  sad  situa- 
tion suggested  to  me,  and  to  seek  in  it  some 
consolation.  I  opened  the  sacred  volume,  but 
my  eye  could  not  distinguish  a  single  letter.  My 
mind  was  not  disposed  to  the  study  and  medita- 
tion of  the  holy  Word  of  God,  which  is  profita- 
ble for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness.2  Finding  that  I 
was  thus  without  consolation,  I  gave  way  to 

1  2  Tim.  3  :  16. 


SPANISH    MONK.  99 

despair.  "  Wretch  that  I  am  !"  I  exclaimed, 
"is  it  possible  that  I  can  live  thus  ?  no,  no.  Oh  ! 
inhuman  Prelate  !  it  is  thou  who  hast  driven  me 
to  this  state !  it  is  thou  who  makest  me  to  be 
persecuted  even  by  my  fellow-countrymen.  Oh ! 
hardened  parents !  is  it  possible  that  the  com- 
plaints of  your  miserable  son  cannot  touch  you  1" 
For  a  moment  I  reflected  on  what  I  should  do ; 
fatal  thoughts  came  into  my  mind.  Suddenly  I 
arose.  "All  is  decided,"  I  exclaimed:  "It  is 
thou,  unworthy  Prelate,  who  art  the  cause  of  all 
my  sorrows.  Tremble  !  for  thou  shalt  soon  be 
the  victim  of  my  despair. — And  thou,  book  call- 
ed holy,  thou  who  art  the  first  author  of  my  mis- 
erable fate,  thou  shouldst  console  me,  and  thou 
speakest  not!  Be  it  right  or  wrong,  all  is  deci- 
ded !"  With  these  words  I  tore  my  Testament 
to  pieces,  and  left  the  place  to  accomplish  my 
project,  which  was  to  take  the  life  of  the  Arch- 
bishop, and  to  end  my  own  also. 

In  what  fatal  bewilderment  was  I !  Ah  !  had 
I  known  how  to  raise  my  mind  to  God,  and  to 
ask  Him  to  enlighten  me  in  reading  His  holy 
Word,  how  different  would  have  been  my 
thoughts !  But  I  forgot  Him,  and  my  trial  be- 


100  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

came    only   more    severe.      Nevertheless,    He 
watched  over  me,  as  will  be  seen. 

As  1  could  think  of  no  other  way  of  going 
thither,  I  went  to  the  Sub-Prefecture,  and  re- 
quested leave  to  enlist  in  the  regiment  which  was 
then  stationed  at  Besanqon.  I  was  far  from  expect- 
ing the  answer  which  the  Secretary  of  the  Sub- 
Prefect  made  me.  "  Sir,"  said  he  to  me,  "  I 
am  deeply  moved  by  your  unhappy  situation  ;  I 
know  how  much  and  how  unjustly  you  suffer  ;  I 
think  often  of  you,  and  I  pity  your  misery.  But 
at  present  you  are  not  self-possessed,  and  I  will 
not  enregister  your  name,  for  I  would  be  your 
enemy,  and  you  would  repent  of  it  to-morrow 
yourself.  Let  the  night  pass,  and  your  tumultu- 
ous thoughts  will  be  calmer.  In  the  mean  time 
here  is  a  little  help,"  and  he  handed  me  a  dollar. 
"  Come  to  me,"  he  added,  "  when  you  are  in 
need ;  but  do  not  salute  me  in  the  street,  for  I 
would  be  compromised."  These  friendly  words 
did  not  calm  me,  for  I  was  out  of  my  mind. 
"  What !"  I  exclaimed  to  myself,  "  shall  this  at- 
tempt fail  ?  I  must  and  will  go  to  Besan^on." 
I  returned  to  the  inn,  and  showing  to  the  inn. 
keeper's  wife  a  part  of  my  clothing,  I  told  her 


SPANISH    MONK.  101 

that  I  had  to  make  a  journey  to  Besanqon,  and 
would  be  gone  three  days.  I  requested  her  to 
give  me  the  necessary  money,  for  which  I  would 
pawn  her  my  clothes ;  which  she  did.  She 
promised  to  say  that  I  was  sick  if  I  was  called 
for,  as  I  had  to  present  myself  every  day  to  the 
Sub-Prefecture.  I  then  went  to  buy  two  pistols, 
and  loaded  them  heavily.  At  10  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  when  the  stage  was  about  to  leave,  I 
asked  the  driver  for  a  seat,  and  I  took  that  which 
he  pointed  to  me,  having  a  pistol  in  each  pocket. 
Whilst  the  other  travellers  were  talking  to- 
gether, the  unfortunate  man  was  silent,  his  eyes 
sparkling  with  fury ;  nothing  around  him  could 
turn  his  mind  from  that  one  thought.  When 
the  stage  stopped,  and  the  travellers  took  their 
meals,  he  alone  thought  not  of  food  or  drink  ; 
hatred  was  his  only  nourishment.  And  this 
wretch  in  a  few  hours  will  be  no  more  ! .  .  .  But 
the  arm  which  stopped  Abraham  about  to  sacri- 
fice his  son  will  be  able  to  hold  him  back  ;  and 
who  knows  but  what  that  man,  who  intends  to 
end  his  days  after  a  horrible  homicide,  is  an  in- 
strument which  God  will  use,  to  bear  His  name 
in  the  world,  and  to  draw  many  souls  to  Jesus  ! 
Will  not  He  who  stopped  Saul  on  his  way  to  Da- 

9* 

• 

• 


102  THE    LIFE    OF    A 


mascus,  send   another  Ananias  to  draw  a  mad- 
man from  his  blindness  ?     Listen  : — 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  I  arrived  at 
Besanqon.  This  hour  was  unfavorable  for  my 
design ;  for  the  Archbishop  could  only  be  seen 
at  ten  in  the  morning  and  four  in  the  afternoon. 
In  the  meantime  I  went  to  the  house  of  a  man 
with  whom  I  was  acquainted,  and  who  had  al- 
ways loaded  me  with  kindness.  Ah  !  if  he  or 
his  mother  had  known  my  state  at  Langres !  — 
but  I  dared  not  ask  any  thing  of  them.  The  lady 
and  her  son  were  much  astonished  to  see  me. 
They  asked  me  if  I  had  obtained  a  passport ;  I 
answered  all  their  questions  abruptly,  and  when 
they  said  that  the  police  would  soon  be  after  me, 
I  replied  that  I  feared  nothing.  They  then  per- 
ceived that  I  had  lost  all  self-control ;  but  noth- 
ing could  console  me ;  I  wept  with  rage.  The 
son  came  up  to  me  in  the  most  affectionate  man- 
ner, and  by  chance  touched  one  of  my  pistols. 
On  seeing  it,  he  exclaimed  :  "  What,  my  friend  ! 
are  going  to  commit  an  evil  action  ?"  I  did 
not  hesitate*  to  acknowledge  it  to  him,  and  when 
he  attempted  to  seize  my  hands,  and  his  mother 
came  to  snatch  the  fatal  weapons  from  me,  I 
turned  with  violence  to  the  door.  But  the  son, 


SPANISH    MONK.  103 

more  nimble,  closed  it  before  I  reached  it.  Then 
I  heard  these  words  in  a  solemn  tone  from  my 
benefactress  :  "  Sir,  you  have  had  the  courage 
to  renounce  father,  mother,  honor  in  the  world, 
to  become  despised  of  all  men  in  forsaking  a  vo- 
cation in  which  you  might  have  been  happy  all 
your  life,  you  have  suffered  all  manner  of  perse- 
cution, and  recently  another  exile  ; — and  why 
all  this  courageous  conduct?  You  said  that  it 
was  to  stand  by  the  Word  of  God  alone.  Is  it 
then  the  Word  of  God  which  commands  you  to 
act  thus  1 "  My  conscience,  or  rather  the  di- 
rect voice  of  God  answered  within  me  :  "  No  ! 
no  !  the  Word  of  God  neither  commands  thee 
nor  even  allows  thee  to  do  thus ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  says  to  thee  :  Thou  shall  not  kill ;  thou  shall 
love  *thine  enemies."  That  which  could  not 
have  been  effected  with  a  dagger  at  my  throat,  the 
very  mention  of  the  sharp  and  two-edged  sword 
performed  in  an  instant,  and  pierced  my  hard- 
ened heart.  Then,  with  my  eyes  full  of  tears  of 
repentance,  and  yielding  the  two  pistols  to  her 
who  had  disarmed  me  by  these  Christian  words, 
"  Engage  a  place  for  me  in  the  stage,"  I  said, 
"  and  I  will  return  immediately  to  Langres," 
which  I  did. 


104  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

During  the  first  seven  days  after  my  arrival,  I 
saw  in  a  peculiar  manner  that  I  was  guilty  and 
condemned  in  the  sight  of  God,  "  being  filled 
with  all  unrighteousness,  fornication,  wicked- 

O  *  ', 

ness,  covetousness,  maliciousness  ;  full  of  envy, 
murder,"  in  a  word,  "  a  hater  of  God  '"  The 
sins  which  I  had  committed  in  Spain,  the  blood 
which  I  had  shed,  and  that  which  I  had  been  on 
the  point  of  shedding,  all  these  crimes  were  ar- 
rayed before  me.  In  recalling  to  mind  the  nu- 
merous circumstances  in  which  the  Lord  had 
testified  His  love  to  me,  in  delivering  me  from 
the  dangers  to  which  I  had  been  exposed,  and 
considering  also  the  indifference  with  which  I 
had  received  these  proofs  of  His  solicitude  and 
the  various  calls  of  His  grace,  I  could  neither 
sleep,  nor  take  my  meals.  I  took  up  again  and 
again  the  Bible,  thinking  to  find  some  consoling 
invitation,  but  it  was  in  vain.  Whichever  chap- 
ter I  might  choose,  I  read  in  each  my  condem- 
nation, and  soon  I  closed  the  book.  I  took  it 
up  again,  but  it  was  always  without  prayer,  for 
I  thought  myself  unworthy  of  addressing  the 
least  request  to  a  God  whom  I  had  so  much  of- 

1  Rom.  1 :  29,  30. 


SPANISH    MONK.  105 

fended.  I  think  that  if  the  Lord  had  allowed 
me  to  groan  a  few  days  longer  under  the  weight 
of  my  sins,  my  end  would  have  been  similar  to 
that  of  Judas.  But  it  could  not  be  thus ;  for 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world  I  was  the  ob- 
ject of  the  mercy  of  the  Father.  He  soon  testi- 
fied it  to  me,  when,  on  my  knees  before  Him  in 
the  deepest  conviction  of  my  sins,  He  relieved 
my  soul  by  these  words  of  mercy.  "Thy  sins 
are  forgiven  ;  go,  and  sin  no  more." 

The  moment  of  deliverance  had  arrived  at 
last;  it  was  the  22d  of  March,  1842.  The 
Lord  permitted  me  to  understand  His  Word, 
and  receive  His  free  salvation.  My  heavenly 
Father  revealed  to  me  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God,  and  God  Himself. 
The  Spirit  bore  witness  with  my  spirit  that  I 
was  a  child  of  God,  and  taught  me  that  there 
was  "  no  condemnation  to  me,  being  in  Christ 
Jesus."1  God  be  praised  for  His  unspeakable 
gift !  With  what  joy  did  I  then  seize  that  Tes- 
tament which  I  had  lately  torn  !  What  consola- 
tion I  felt  in  reading  it!  Ah!  then  my  soul 
was  tranquil ;  it  had  the  peace  of  God.  I  loved 

1  Rom.  8:  16  and  1. 


106  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

all  my  enemies,  and  prayed  for  those  who  perse- 
cuted me. 

The  Lord,  who  had  taken  pity  on  me,  and  had 
adopted  me  as  His  child,  did  not  forsake  me  ; 
unexpected  relief  came  from  all  directions.  A 
few  days  after,  I  asked  for  a  passport  for  Spain ; 
it  was  granted  me,  but  assigning  the  places 
through  which  I  was  to  pass,  and  giving  me 
merely  the  pay  of  a  simple  soldier.  On  my  way 
I  passed  through  Dijon,  and  the  Prefect  of  that 
city,  at  the  request  of  the  Protestant  pastor, 
made  me  another,  which  gave  me  more  liberty 
in  choosing  my  road.  He  also  granted  me  the 
pay  of  an  officer. 

In  that  city  I  was  received  at  the  communion 
by  the  pastor,  Mr.  De  Frontin,  who,  after  three  , 
weeks  of  religious  instruction  at  his  house,  au- 
thorized me  to  approach,  for  the  first  time,  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the 
15th  of  May.  I  then  pursued  my  journey  to- 
wards my  native  country. 

At  Nimes  and  Montpellier,  I  was  advised  not 
to  return  to  Spain  without  knowing  how  I  would 
be  received  by  my  family.  I  wrote  to  my  pa- 
rents, and  they  replied But  what  a  re- 
ply !  this  remembrance  saddens  my  heart.  It 


SPANISH    MONK.  107 

was  my  mother  who  wrote  to  me,  and  these 
were  her  words  :  "  Cruel  son  !  can  it  be  that 
from  our  house  went  forth  the  first  Spanish  Cal- 
vin ?  If  thou  canst  pass  the  frontier,  thou  shalt 
not  pass  the  threshold  of  our  house ;  thy  very 
father  will  sacrifice  thy  body.  Ah !  would  to 
God  I  had  died  before  I  bore  thee.  Write  no 
more  ;  we  want  no  tidings  of  thee." 

According  to  the  advice  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lis- 
signol,  I  wrote  again  to  my  beloved  mother,  and 
begged  her,  since  I  might  not  return  home,  to 
send  me  pecuniary  aid.  My  mother,  thinking 
this  to  be  a  favorable  opportunity  for  an  inter- 
view with  me,  wrote  to  me  to  meet  her  at  a  cer- 
tain house  in  the  town  of  Perpignan  on  the  2*2d 
of  July.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Lissignol,  fearful  lest 
this  might  be  a  snare,  thought  it  best  that  I 
should  not  go,  and  advised  me  to  write  again, 
requesting  her  to  send  me  money  through  the 
post-office.  Fatal  answer !  my  mother  said : 
"  You  thought  that  the  object  of  my  visit  was 
merely  to  bring  you  some  money  ;  it  was  rather 
to  try  if,  by  my  tears  and  my  persuasion,  I  might 
soften  your  heart,  and  make  you  perform  a  gen- 
eral confession,  oblige  you  to  renounce  the  sect 
which  you  have  embraced,  and  then  shut  you  up 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

i 

in  some  seminary.  Since  you  reject  the  appeals 
of  your  mother,  and  persist  in  heresy,  it  is  use- 
less for  you  to  write  to  us,  for  we  will  not  receive 
your  letters.  Do  not  expect  to  receive  any  thing 
from  us  while  we  live ;  our  lives  will  not  be 
long,  for  you  drag  us  to  the  grave.  Your  father 
is  already  stretched  on  a  bed  of  suffering,  and 
soon  your  mother,  your  brothers,  and  your  sis- 
ters will  follow  him." 

Although  my  parents  rejected  me,  as  can  be 
seen  by  the  two  letters  which  I  have  transcribed, 
they  did  not  fail,  by  new  efforts,  to  endeavor  to 
bring  me  back  to  their  idolatrous  faith.  My  mo- 
ther sent  me  a  golden  chain,  to  which  was  attach- 
ed a  cross  and  a  medal  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  also  in 
gold  ;  she  supposed  that  the  supernatural  virtue 
of  these  amulets  would  bring  me  back  from  my 
error.  In  order  to  induce  me  to  wear  these  ob- 
jects, in  which  she  put  her  trust,  my  mother 
added  to  them  one  hundred  dollars,  on  the  ex- 
press condition  that  I  would  wear  this  chain. 
But  He  who  said  to  Satan,  "  thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the  Lord  thy  God,"  gave  me  strength,  by 
His  example,  to  send  back  to  my  mother  those 
pretended  supernatural  objects,  and  also  the 
money  which  accompanied  them. 


SPANISH    MONK.  109 

But,  oh  !  my  beloved  mother  !  how  bitterly 
must  you  weep  on  seeing  that  all  your  measures 
are  useless !  You  spend  much  money  in  having 
masses  said  in  one  chapel  and  another ;  you 
spare  no  sum  in  burning  lamps  before  the  altars 
of  Mary  and  St.  Francis ;  I  know  it,  my  mother  ! 
You  pray  together,  father,  mother,  brothers  and 
sisters,  for  that  Lazarus,  whom  you  think  al- 
ready under  the  reign  of  corruption  !  Oh,  no  ! 
it  is  not  so ;  he  is  the  beloved  of  Jesus.  Yes, 
that  Saviour  has  brought  him  forth  from  the 
grave,  and  now  he  walks  beneath  the  rod  and 
the  staff  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  But  to  whom 
do  you  pray,  dear  parents'?  You  pray  to  the 
god  of  the  Athenians — an  unknown  god.  The 
true  God  will  not  be  petitioned  through  the  in- 
tercession of  any  creature :  He  grants  only 
through  Jesus  Christ.  I  perceive  that  I  drag 
you  to  the  grave — oh !  my  mother  ;  and  that 
your  hairs  are  whitening  by  grief  and  sadness  ; 
but  you  know  that  I  love  you,  and  would  not  for 
the  world  shorten  your  life  ty  a  single  moment. 
God  knows  how  I  pray  that  He  may  deign  to  be 
your  helper  in  your  old  age.  O  Rachel !  be 
comforted ;  thy  son  is  not  dead.  O  Shunamite  ! 
if  thou  hast  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  thou  wilt  see 
10 


110  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

thy  child  arisen  from  the  dead,  and  wilt  arise 
with  him  in  the  last  day. 

I  am  convinced,  beloved  parents,  that  if  you 
treat  me  with  such  bitterness  in  your  letters,  it  is 
not  that  you  hate  me ;  far  from  me  be  that 
thought.  It  is  because  you  love  me  tenderly  that 
you  have  acted  thus  towards  me.  You  have 
given  me  a  proof  of  it  in  the  gifts  which  you 
have  sent  me.  Thus,  one  while  by  offers,  an- 
other while  by  remonstrances,  you  endeavour  to 
separate  me  from  the  communion  of  Jesus,  who 
alone  has  the  words  of  eternal  life.  Yours  is  a 
blind  zeal.  I  myself  would  probably  have  done 
as  you  have.  I  do  not  blame  you  ;  I  pity  you 
from  the  bottom  of  my  soul.  And  as  for  myself, 
I  repeat,  dear  parents,  I  love  you  tenderly ;  but  I 
must  love  God  better.  "  He  that  loveth  father 
or  mother  more  than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me," 
saith  Jesus';  Matth.  x.  37. 


SPANISH    MONK.  Ill 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Distribution  of  the  Scriptures  among  my  Countrymen. — 
The  Wolf  turned  into  a  Lamb. — Plots  formed  for  taking 
my  life. 

THE  preceding  correspondence  took  place  at 
Montpellier,  where  I  remained  some  time.  On 
my  arrival  in  that  city,  I  began  again  to  prac- 
tise the  trade  of  a  barber,  but  I  continued  to  do 
so  only  two  months,  for  I  earned  nothing  but  my 
sustenance.  I  had  made  an  arrangement  with 
my  employer  so  as  not  to  work  on  the  Sabbath  ; 
on  this  account,  the  salary  which  should  have 
been  given  to  me,  was  given  to  a  soldier,  who 
took  my  place  on  Sunday,  so  that  I  could  keep 
the  day  of  the  Lord  holy.  I  therefore  forsook 
that  trade,  and  entered  a  carpet  factory  as 
clerk,  where  I  gained  three  francs  a  day.  But 
this  was  not  what  was  necessary  for  me;  I 
thirsted  more  after  the  nourishment  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  longed  rather  to  consecrate  myself 


112  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

entirely  to  the  service  of  the  Lord,  than  to 
amass  wealth  for  the  perishable  body.  I  spoke 
to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lissignol  of  the  desire  which 
God  had  placed  in  my  heart ;  he  approved  it, 
and  advised  me  to  study  seriously  the  Holy 
Scriptures  with  him.  To  facilitate  this  study, 
he  made  me  translate  into  Spanish  the  work  en- 
titled, "  Indications  of  the  Principal  Passages  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,"  as  well  as  other  books. 
He  then  employed  me  in  the  kingdom  of  God, 
making  me  distribute  the  word  of  God  among 
those  of  my  countrymen  who  were  then  living 
at  Montpellier.  Although  I  experienced  much 
persecution  from  them,  I  nevertheless  had  the 
satisfaction  of  distributing  a  large  number  of 
copies  among  them. 

Two  families  which  repulsed  me  for  a  long 
time,  at  last  accepted  the  New  Testament  and 
religious  tracts,  and  a  short  time  after  abjured 
Popery.  Of  one  of  these  families  I  will  now 
speak. 

Among  the  six  hundred  Spaniards  whom  I 
visited  there,  and  to  whom  I  offered  the  word  of 
God,  there  was  one,  a  man  of  distinction  and 
wealth,  who  had  served  in  the  army,  and  now 
lived  in  retirement. 


SPANISH    MONK.  113 

One  day  I  went  to  the  house  of  this  gentle- 
man, and  told  him  I  had  taken  the  liberty  to  call 
and  offer  him  the  Word  of  God.  "  Ah !"  said  he, 
"  I  know  you ;  I  have  heard  of  you.  You  are  a 
worthless  fellow."  "  Very  true,"  I  replied ;  "  I 
feel  that  more  and  more ;  and  this  book  has 
taught  me  what  I  am,  and  who  is  that  Saviour 
whom  I  needed.  And  it  has  afforded  me  such 

consolation  and   instruction " He  did 

not  allow  me  to  finish,  but,  in  his  fury,  gave  me 
a  violent  kick,  and  drove  me  from  his  house.  I 
went  away ;  but  the  next  day  I  returned.  I  had 
hardly  time  to  state  my  object,  before  he  raised 
an  umbrella  which  he  held  in  his  hand,  and 
struck  me  a  heavy  blow  on  my  head.  I  turned 
away,  and  went  back. 

The  third  day  I  had  no  better  success ;  the 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  so  on  to  the  fourteenth 
time  I  repeated  my  visit ;  but  I  must  own  that  I 
trembled  each  time,  as  I  mounted  his  steps,  ex- 
pecting to  be  loaded  with  contempt.  The  last 
time,  enraged  at  my  perseverance,  he  gave  me 
a  blow  which  threw  me  down,  and  injured  me 
so  as  to  force  me  to  remain  in  my  room  several 
days. 

10* 


114  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

On  the  first  day  that  I  could  leave  the  house, 
having  heard  that  the  wife  of  him  who  had  re- 
pulsed me  so  often,  was  ill,  I  again  resolved  to 
visit  him.  On  my  way  to  his  house,  I  met  him 
in  the  street.  "  Senor,"  I  said  to  him,  "  I  have 
heard  bad  news."  "  What  news?"  returned  he, 
in  a  tone  of  contempt.  "  That  your  lady  is  very 
sick."  "  What  business  is  that  of  yours  ?"  "  It 
is  my  business,  Senor  ;  for  I  feel  a  desire  to 
pray  for  her.  Will  you  not  accept  this  book, 
the  Word  of  God,  which  has  given  peace  to  my 
soul,  and  will  give  peace  to  yours,  if  you  will 
receive  it  1"  Then,  to  get  clear  of  me,  he  took 
the  book,  paid  me,  and  hurried  away. 

Five  days  after  I  was  in  my  room,  and  saw 
this  gentleman  coming  towards  the  house  with 
the  Testament  in  his  hand.  I  thought  immedi- 
ately that  he  came  to  return  the  book  and  mal- 
treat me,  and  I  hastily  locked  my  door.  He 
approached,  and  knocked  at  my  door ;  I  re- 
mained quiet,  and  he  withdrew.  An  hour  after, 
I  saw  him  again  coming ;  and  soon  perceived 
that  he  had  pushed  a  paper  under  my  door.  I 
took  it,  and  read  the  following  words  : 

"  SIR  : — Though  I  am  unworthy  to  speak  to 


SPANISH    MONK.  115 

you,  if  you  will  come  to  my  house,  my  wife  and 
I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  you  pray  for  your  ene- 
mies. DE  VIVES." 

I  took  the  note  to  my  friend  the  pastor,  who 
thought  it  imprudent  to  trust  myself  alone  in  the 
house  of  the  gentleman  ;  and  I  went  in  his  com- 
pany. As  soon  as  the  officer  saw  me,  he  em- 
braced me,  and  said,  "  I  have  read  the  book  to 
my  wife,  and  beg  your  pardon  for  the  brutal 
manner  in  which  I  have  treated  you.  Forgive 
me."  I  replied,  "  Dear  Sir,  it  is  not  to  me  that 
you  should  return  thanks,  but  to  God.  Let  us 
pray  to  Him."  When  we  had  done  so,  I  took 
the  Testament  and  read  a  ^chapter,  to  which  he 
paid  the  most  serious  attention.  His  wife  also 
received  me  with  the  greatest  kindness. 

"  There  is  one  thing,"  said  he,  "  which  I  wish 
you  to  promise  me ;  that  is,  if  you  ever  again 
offer  that  book  to  a  monster  like  myself,  who  re- 
pulses you  fourteen  times,  go  again  a  fifteenth 
time  to  him." 

My  new  friends,  desiring  to  be  instructed  in 
the  way  of  salvation,  frequently  visited  the  Pro- 
testants to  whom  I  introduced  them.  Shortly 
after,  they  testified  publicly  the  sincerity  of  their 
convictions,  by  having  their  infant  baptized  in 


116  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

the  Protestant  church.  The  change  of  their 
religion  drew  upon  them  the  hatred  and  per- 
secution of  their  fellow-countrymen,  to  avoid 
which  they  were  finally  obliged  to  leave  Mont- 
pellier. 

Similar  treatment  to  that  which  this  interest- 
ing pair  received,  I  had  often  and  long  endured, 
both  before  and  since  my  arrival  in  that  city. 
And  the  more  repeated  and  violent  these  perse- 
cutions were,  the  more  I  perceived  that  the  hand 
of  God  was  with  me.  Of  this  the  reader  may 
judge  by  that  which  precedes  and  follows. 

At  Montpellier  God  saved  me  from  a  plot  which 
was  formed  against  me.  One  day  a  child  brought 
me  a  letter  signed  by  two  Spaniards,  who  had 
received  a  New  Testament  from  me,  and,  pre- 
tending to  be  greatly  interested  in  my  cause,  re- 
quested me  to  meet  them  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  in  an  isolated  spot.  They  said  they 
had  important  things  to  say  to  me,  and  begged 
that  I  would  be  there  without  fail.  As  this  was 
an  irregular  hour,  I  feared  lest  they  had  evil  in- 
tentions with  regard  to  me,  although  they  had, 
in  conversation  with  me,  the  appearance  of  sin- 
cerity. On  the  next  day,  the  woman  in  whose 
house  my  two  fellow-countrymen  lived,  met  me  in 


SPANISH    MONK.  117 

the  street,  and  exclaimed  with  surprise,  "  What ! 
I  thought  you  were  already  assassinated  !  Yes- 
terday I  heard  one  of  the  Spaniards  saying  to 
the  other,  '  That  rascal  who  wanted  us  to  be- 
come Protestants  will  not  fail  of  being  stabbed 
to-day.'  As  they  supposed  they  would  succeed 
in  their  attempt,  they  sent  their  trunk  before- 
hand to  the  office  of  the  stage-coach,  for  they 
intended,  after  having  killed  you,  to  take  the 
coach  immediately  for  Cettes  and  embark  for 
Barcelona.  As  they  have  not  returned  to  my 
house,  I  suppose  they  have  left,  and  I  was  afraid 
that  you  were  already  their  victim.  Since  1  did 
not  know  where  you  lived,  I  could  not  come  to 
warn  you  of  this  ;  and  even  had  I  warned  you 
of  it,  if  they  had  learned  it,  they  would  have  as- 
sassinated me  also." 

One  more  fact  which  occurred  to  me  in  that 
city,  will  suffice.  I  occasionally  visited  the  house 
of  a  lady  who  appeared  very  friendly,  and  who 
on  Christmas  presented  me  with  a  large  cake. 
I  returned  home  with  it ;  and,  when  I  entered 
the  house,  the  landlady  exclaimed  :  "  Ah  !  you 
have  bought  a  cake."  "  No,"  f  replied,  "  Ma- 
dame   gave  it  to  me."  "  What !  Madairie 

?  then  you  shall  not  eat  it;  if  you  only 


118  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

knew  all  she  says  against  you  !  She  declared 
the  other  day  that  he  who  poisoned  you  would 
deserve  an  indulgence.  And  was  it  not  she  who 
poisoned  her  husband  because  he  was  a  Protest- 
ant ?"  I  would  not  listen  to  her  at  first,  saying 
that  these  were  unworthy  suspicions ;  but  she 
snatched  it  from  my  hand,  and,  breaking  off  a 
piece,  gave  it  to  a  dog  which  was  in  the  room. 
The  animal  was  shortly  after  swollen  to  double 
its  size,  and  expired  the  next  day. 

How  often  already  would  I  have  perished,  had 
not  He  preserved  me  who  said,  "  Even  the  very 
hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered !" 


SPANISH    MONK.  119 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Visit  to  the  Republicans  at  Clermont. — Brief  account  of 
Thiers. — Testaments  sold  and  returned. 

THE  Corresponding  Committee  at  Montpel- 
lier  of  the  Geneva  Evangelical  Society  obtained 
a  passport  for  me  to  travel  in  the  interior  of 
France,  for  the  purpose  of  performing  the  work 
of  a  colporteur  among  my  countrymen  who  were 
in  the  larger  cities.     I  first  went  to  Clermont- 
Ferrand,  to  labor  among  the  republicans  who 
had  risen  against  Espartero,  and  had  been  ex- 
pelled  from   Barcelona   in    1842.     On  leaving 
Spain  they  were  received  by  the  French  govern- 
ment, and  provided  with  support,  being  placed 
among  the  Carlist  exiles ;  but  in  consequence  of 
their  disputes  with  the  Carlists,  they  were  placed 
at  separate  stations,  one  of  which  was  Clermont- 
Ferrand.     I  there  found  four  hundred  of  them, 
living  in  the  town  and  its  environs.    On  enter- 


120  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

ing  the  town  I  approached  a  house  where  several 
of  my  countrymen  were  seated  near  the  door, 
some  playing  the  guitar,  and  others  at  cards.  I 
began  by  saying :  "  Gentlemen,  I  find  you  en- 
gaged ;  but  there  is  a  time  for  all  things ;  a  time 
to  play,  and  a  time  for  more  serious  objects. 
Permit  me  to  tell  you  that  I  have  here  a  book, 
which  is  of  great  value  and  interest  to  us  all,  and 
offered  at  a  very  low  price." 

"  Did  the  priest  send  you?"  was  the  first  ques- 
tion. ,  -  • 

"Oh!  no,"  I  replied;  "  the  priests  never  send 
this  book,  I  assure  you;  it  is  too  much  opposed 
to  their  principles  and  lives.  This  is  the  thing 
they  most  hate  in  the  world." 

"  Vaya  !" l  exclaimed  they ;  "  what  a  beautiful 
volume !  how  cheap !  Only  ten  cents  for  such 
an  elegant  book?" 

"  But  it  is  of  great  value,  gentlemen,"  I  added  ; 
"  it  is  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
such  are  its  instructions,  and  such  is  its  power, 
that  if  it  were  in  the  hands  of  as  many  people  as 
there  are  in  Spain,  the  priests  would  soon  find 
that  they  must  either  change  their  doctrines  and 

1  A  Spanish  exclamation,  equivalent  to  "  See !" 


SPANISH    MONK.  121 

mend  their  morals,  or  come  down  from  their 
pulpits.  Yes,  gentlemen !  examine  for  your- 
selves, and  you  will  find  it  true, — just  as  I  tell 
you." 

By  this  time  the  attention  of  my  audience  was 
fixed.  They  forgot  their  cards  and  their  music, 
and  gave  their  attention  wholly  to  me.  "  What 
does  it  say  against  the  curates  ?"  inquired  one. 
"  Listen,  and  judge  for  yourselves.  Here  is  a 
description  of  Antichrist,  and  decide  yourselves 
if  this  is  not  applicable  to  the  Pope  : — '  Who 
opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is 
called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped  ;  so  that  he,  as 
God,  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  him- 
self that  he  is  God.'1  You  know  that  in  Spain, 
when  a  priest  passes  through  the  street,  the 
people  make  haste  to  kiss  his  hand ;  now  look 
at  this  :  When  John  fell  down  at  the  angel's 
feet  to  worship,  the  Spirit  exclaimed,  '  See  thou 
do  it  not; — worship  God."2  I  could  quote  many 
other  similar  texts ;  but  I  only  desired  to  satisfy 
your  curiosity  a  little.  However,  I  must  say  that 
I,  and  the  other  Christians,  do  not  use  the  Bible 
merely  to  find  out  what  it  says  against  the 

1  2  These.  2:4.  2  Rev.  22:  9  ;  Acts  10:  26. 

11 


122  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

priests  ;  but  we  seek  to  see  ourselves  in  it.  And 
you  too  ought  to  search  this  book,  for  it  is  profit- 
able for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction."1 
They  then  became  more  serious,  and  eagerly 
bought  my  Testaments.  I  next  proceeded  to 
another  house,  and  another  ;  till  I  had  sold  a 
copy  to  every  Spaniard  in  the  town. 

I  saw  enough  there  to  convince  me  that  if  the 
Bible  could  enter  Spain  freely,  and  it  were 
brought  to  the  republicans,  with  these  words 
printed  on  the  cover  in  large  letters  :  "  THE  BOOK 
WHICH  UNVEILS  THE  FALSE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
PRIESTS,  AND  WHICH  CONTAINS  THE  TRUE  DOC- 
TRINE," it  would  be  purchased  and  read  by 
every  body. 

How  different  were  their  opinions,  and  their 
consequent  treatment  of  myself  and  the  sacred 
volume,  from  those  which  had  been  displayed 
continually  by  the  Carlists!  With  the  latter 
the  exclamation  was :  "  Bringing  forbidden 
books  to  us !  books  condemned  by  the  Pope, 
who  has  power  on  earth  !  Vaya  !  a  base  Pro- 
testant!" And  as  for  arguing,  it  was  not 
thought  of — nothing  but :  "  There  is  no  religion 

1  2  Tim.  3  :  16. 


SPANISH    MONK.  123 

but  the  Catholic,  Apostolic  and  Roman  ;  so  get 
out !" 

You  see,  then,  my  dear  American  brethren, 
that  there  are  a  great  many  Spaniards  who  are 
not  difficult  of  access.  Though  the  impostures 
of  the  Romish  faith  have  led  them  to  such  bar- 
barity, still  they  feel  the  need  of  a  religion. 
Labor  then,  with  us ;  ind  soon  we  shall  see  the 
fruit  of  our  work.  Spain  will  soon  be  convert- 
ed ! 

After  having  visited  those  who  had  so  long 
been  my  enemies,  I  went  to  visit  my  country- 
men at  Dole  and  Lons-le-Saulnier.  On  my  way 
I  passed  through  Thiers.  I  did  not  meet  any  of 
my  countrymen  there  ;  yet  I  think  it  will  not  be 
uninteresting  to  give  a  short  account  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  that  place  was  reformed,  and  the 
zeal  of  those  who  forsook  the  yoke  of  Rome  to 
enlist  under  the  standard  of  the  Gospel. 

Two  years  before,  the  state  of  the  people  was 
extremely  discouraging.  There  was  not  then  a 
Protestant  to  be  found  ;  and  the  people  seemed 
devoted  to  their  superstitious  faith,  and  subject 
to  the  control  of  the  priests.  However,  a  Scotch 

gentleman  of  fortune,  Mr.  L ,  who  annually 

visits  different  parts  of  France  for  the  purpose 


124  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

of  disseminating  the  Scriptures,  went  there,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  a  few  devoted  colporteurs,  fur- 
nished many  a  family  with  the  Word  of  God. 
The  year  after  he  paid  another  visit  to  the  town, 
and  an  agent  was  employed  to  visit  the  families 
where  the  Scriptures  had  been  placed,  with  ur- 
gent appeals  to  them  to  engage  in  its  study. 

I  had  the  happiness  of  forming  an  acquaint- 
ance with  this  excellent  man,  and  of  accompany- 
ing him  in  many  of  his  labors  of  love.  Some- 
times he  brought  me  into  the  large  street  which 
leads  in  from  the  country,  before  the  dawn 
of  day,  laden  with  copies  of  the  Scriptures;  and 
when  one  of  the  large  wagons,  which  transport 
the  produce  of  the  farms  to  the  market  of  Thiers 
passed  by,  he  addressed  each  wagoner  :  "  My 
friend,  can  you  read  ?"  "  Yes,  sir,"  was  usual- 
ly the  answer.  "  Let  us  hear  you,"  handing 
him  a  Testament.  When  he  had'  spoken  a  few 
words  of  exhortation  to  the  man,  he  gave  him 
the  book,  and  passed  on.  Often  we  would  go 
through  the  streets,  entering  each  shop  and  sell- 
ing or  giving  away  copies  of  the  Word.  Ere 
long,  the  character  of  the  people  was  deeply  af- 
fected by  the  distribution  of  books ;  new  ideas 
were  entertained  of  religion,  old  superstitions 


SPANISH    MONK.  125 

were  renounced,  and  a  new  form  of  worship  was 
soon  longed  for.  A  large  congregation  was 
formed,  who  proceeded  to  the  erection  of  a 
church,  and  sought  a  pastor  of  their  own  prin- 
ciples. In  short,  a  large  number  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Thiers  became,  not  only  Protestants,  but 
devoted  and  evangelical  Christians.  I  have 
never  seen,  in  any  place,  such  Christian  love 
and  such  lively  zeal  for  religion,  as  in  Thiers. 
Their  very  enemies  are  struck  by  their  conduct, 
and  give  honorable  testimony  respecting  them. 

Every  storekeeper  among  these  converts  keeps 
a  supply  of  Bibles,  Testaments,  and  Tracts ;  and 
every  customer  is  sure  to  hear  religious  exhorta- 
tions and  to  have  the  Scriptures  offered  him,  or 
some  religious  book  given  him  before  he  leaves. 
And  above  every  door  are  inscribed  striking 
texts  from  the  Scriptures,  in  large  letters ;  so 
that  no  one  can  pass  through  the  streets  without 
casting  his  eye  on  some  of  them. 

At  Thiers  I  addressed  several  meetings  of 
these  new  Christians ;  and  before  my  departure, 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  them  pray  for  those 
who  belonged  to  my  nation.  Thus,  seeing  that 
there  every  man  was  a  missionary,  laboring  with 
11* 


126  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

zeal  in  the  field  around  him,  I  proceeded  with 
renewed  courage  to  my  companions  in  arms 
at  Dole,  where  I  visited  eighty  of  my  country- 
men, but  could  sell  only  six  Testaments. 

At  Lons-le-Saulnier,  I  met  with  two  men  who 
had  belonged  to  the  same  company  as  myself, 
and  with  whom  I  had  been  very  intimate.  They 
received  me  with  much  friendship,  and  led  me 
themselves  to  the  houses  of  thirty  Carlist  Span- 
iards, where  I  sold  as  many  Testaments.  But 
a  few  days  after,  a  priest  went  to  each  per- 
son whom  I  had  visited,  and  told  them  that  I 
had  left  the  Seminary  and  the  Catholic  Church, 
that  I  was  Protestant  heretic,  and  desired  to  make 
them  such  also.  Then  the  love  of  my  two  former 
companions  was  turned  into  hatred ;  and  they 
went  to  the  inn  where  I  was  staying  ;  but  I  was 
not  in.  The  next  day,  as  I  was  coming  out  of 
the  Evangelical  meeting  with  the  pastor  of  the 
town,  I  was  attacked  with  blows  by  several  men, 
and  was  told  that  I  would  find  my  books  at  my 
room.  And  when  I  returned  to  the  inn,  I  found 
my  thirty  Testaments,  with  a  note  commanding 
me  to  leave  the  money  I  had  received  for  them 
in  the  hands  of  the  landlady,  that  it  might 


SPANISH    MONK.  127 

be   returned   to  them ;  and  I  did  as  they  de- 
sired. 

Father,  forgive  them !  for  they  knew  not  what 
they  did. 


128  THE    LIFE    OF    A 


CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Wine-store  of  Cabrera. — Interview  with  two  Priests, 
and  the  results. — Glay. 

SADDENED,  and  almost  discouraged  by  the 
treatment  which  I  received  at  Lons-le-Saulnier, 
I  went  to  Lyons,  where  I  distributed  a  great 
number  of  copies  of  the  Word  of  God  and  of  re- 
ligious tracts  among  my  countrymen.  But  the 
Archbishop,  having  heard  of  rny  visits,  sent  a 
French  priest,  his  secretary,  to  me.  The  cir- 
cumstances were  these  : 

After  the  retreat  of  our  army  into  France, 
General  Cabrera  had  established  in  the  city  of 
Lyons  a  large  wine-store,  having  formed  partner- 
ships in  various  towns  in  that  country.  In  this  store 
he  had  eight  Spanish  clerks,  who  had  formerly 
belonged  to  his  army.  Very  soon  after  I  had 
commenced  my  labors  in  Lyons,  I  visited  that 
store,  and,  finding  one  of  the  clerks  in,  invited 


SPANISH    MONK.  129 

him  to  purchase  one  of  my  Testaments,  telling 
him  that  it  was  a  volume  of  inestimable  value, 
being  nothing  less  than  the  Word  of  God,  etc. 
He  replied  to  me  in  contemptuous  and  oppro- 
brious language,  and  I  withdrew  without  mak- 
ing any  reply  which  might  irritate  him.  I  re- 
peated my  visit  shortly  after,  but  found  the  same 
person  alone,  and  met  with  the  same  reception 
as  before.  Almost  discouraged,  I  called  at  the 
house  of  the  French  pastor,  Mr.  Fisch,  a  man  of 
great  zeal  and  sincerity.  This  gentleman  first 
invited  me  to  pray  for  God's  assistance,  and 
then  advised  me  to  call  again  at  the  wine-store, 
for  I  might  perhaps  meet  with  the  others. 
Strengthened  by  this,  I  resolved  to  venture  once 
more.  I  entered,  and  found  the  other  clerks 
present;  and  he  who  had  insulted  me  remark- 
ed :  "  There  is  an  importunate  fellow,  who  has 
been  here  twice  already  to  sell  his  books.  Here, 
take  a  seat.  Now,  what  do  you  want  ?  What 
books  are  those  ?"  I  immediately  opened  one 
before  them,  saying  :  "  It  is  a  book  which  has 
done  me  much  good,  and  speaks  in  words  of 
high  importance  to  us  all.  Perhaps  some  per- 
sons may  tell  you  not  to  read  it ;  but  God  him- 

I 


130  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

self  has   commanded   us   all   to   examine   and 
study  it." 

I  then  began  in  the  proper  manner  to  proceed 
with  Spaniards,  and  according  to  what  I  call 
the  tactics  of  colportage  with  them.  I  first  en- 
deavored to  produce  an  impression  on  them  as 
regards  the  natural  state  of  man.  I  showed 
them  what  value  ought  to  be  set  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures. "  They  are  not  like  any  of  the  writings 
of  men.  This  is  a  divine  book,  and  above  all 
price."  This  being  explained,  I  related  to 
them  all  that  the  priests  could  say,  anticipating 
their  objections,  and  pointing  out  the  answers  to 
them  in  the  Word  of  God.  For  instance  : 
"  They  will  tell  you  that  the  Bible  is  obscure, 
and  needs  an  interpreter.  There  is  a  text 
which  declares  the  contrary.'"  And  they 
noted  it  down.  "  Next,  they  will  tell  you  that 
this  edition  is  destitute  of  notes.  Here  is  a  pas- 
sage which  overthrows  that  objection.2  But  it 
is  not  approved  by  the  Church.  No  such  ap- 
proval is  necessary.3  And  all  that  concerns 
salvation  is  plainly  set  forth  ;  if  there  is  any 
thing  which  we  do  not  understand,  we  need 

1  2  Cor.  4: 3, 4.          *  Rev.  22 :  19.         3  2  Tim.  3 :  16. 


SPANISH    MONK.  131 

only  ask  for  the  light  of  the  Spirit,  which  will 
be  given  us.  Then  you  will  be  told  that  the 
people  are  not  allowed  to  read  it.  Mark  this 
answer."1  I  then  told  them,  as  I  have  told 
many  others,  that  the  priests  had  strong  reasons 
for  desiring  to  keep  that  book  from  the  laity, 
because  it  contains  so  many  passages  which 
show  that  they  do  not  live  and  preach  in  confor- 
mity with  the  Gospel,  and  the  people  would  soon 
see  it  so  plainly,  that  the  priests  would  have  to 
conform  their  doctrines  to  it.  After  a  long  in- 
terview, and  having  sold  them  a  Testament  with 
marks  of  the  passages  I  had  quoted,  I  left  them, 
praying  that  God  would  bless  its  perusal. 

But,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  I  had  scarcely 
got  out  of  sight,  before  a  French  priest  entered 
the  wine-store,  having  been  sent  by  the  Arch- 
bishop to  warn  all  the  Spanish  inhabitants  against 
me,  as  a  vender  of  bad  books. 

"  Have  you  seen  a  Spaniard  with  books  to 
sell  1"  asked  the  priest.  "  Yes,"  replied  one  of 
the  clerks ;  "  you  would  have  met  him  if  you 
had  come  in  a  moment  ago ;  and  here  is  one  of 
his  books."  "Give  it  to  me,"  said  the  priest 

1  John  5 :  39. 


132  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

eagerly;  "  it  is  a  bad  book ;  I  will  take  it  away." 
"  No,  no,"  replied  the  other ;  "  I  choose  to  keep 
it."  Seeing  that  he  could  not  obtain  it,  he  be- 
gan to  talk  against  it.  "  Oh !  yes,"  returned 
the  clerk ;  "  the  Spaniard  told  me  you  would 
come  and  speak  against  it;  but  listen  to  this 
passage,  if  you  please."  So  saying,  he  opened 
at  one  of  the  places  marked,  and  then  at  ano- 
ther, till  the  poor  ecclesiastic  had  no  resource 
but  to  leave  him  and  come  in  search  of  me. 

I  had  not  been  long  at  my  lodgings  before  I 
was  informed  that  two  priests  were  waiting  for 
me  below.  Expecting  an  attack  upon  my  Bi- 
bles, I  took  two  of  them  in  my  hands,  one  Latin, 
and  the  other  Spanish,  in  order  to  be  fully  pre- 
pared to  meet  their  objections ;  and  I  hastened 
down  stairs. 

It  was  dinner-time,  and  my  visitors  awaited 
me  in  the  large  public  hall,  where  about  thirty 
persons  were  at  their  tables.  One  of  the  priests 
was  the  same  who,  as  I  afterwards  understood, 
had  called  at  the  wine-store.  He  had  met  with 
another  priest,  and  with  them  came  a  Spaniard 
who  had  formerly  been  my  grammar-master  at 
Olot,  and  with  whom  I  was  well  acquainted.  He 
was  now  a  dealer  in  chocolate,  at  Lyons,  and  I 


SPANISH    MONK.  133 

had  met  with  him  a  short  time  previous,  and 
sold  him  a  New  Testament,  which  he  now  held 
in  his  hand,  having  evidently  been  persuaded  by 
the  priests  to  return  it. 

,  Being  asked  what  they  wanted,  one  of  them 
replied  in  a  low  tone  :  "  Sir,  we  desire  to  speak 
to  you  ;  can  you  lead  us  to  your  room  ?"  I  an- 
swered :  "Gentlemen,  as  I  suppose  the  subject 
of  our  conversation  is  to  be  the  Word  of  God, 
I  do  not  think  these  ladies  and  gentlemen  will 
be  sorry  to  listen  to  it."  "  But  do  not  speak  so 
loud,"  returned  he.  "  Gentlemen,"  I  replied,  "  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel."  "  The  Arch- 
bishop," said  he,  "  having"!  heard  that  you  are 
distributing  bad  books  among  your  countrymen, 
has  sent  us  to  gather  them  together ;  and 
since  you  have  prepared  them  in  your  own  way 
to  receive  your  books,  they  will  not  give  them 
up  to  us.  The  Archbishop  says  therefore  that 
you  must  go  yourself  and  take  them  from  your 
countrymen,  and  tell  them  that  they  are  bad 
books  which  you  were  selling  for  your  own  pro- 
fit. You  must  return  the  money  to  them,  and 
take  the  books  to  the  Archbishop,  who  will  pay 
you."  "  Gentlemen,  I  believe  that  I  distributed 
no  other  books  than  the  Word  of  God,  and  those 
12 


134  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

works  which  are  conformed  to  it.  But  if  you 
can  prove  the  contrary,  I  will  willingly  take  the 
books  back  and  return  the  money."  "  Sir," 
they  answered,  "  it  is  not  for  you  to  command, 
but  to  advise."  "  Gentlemen,  this  book  has 
taught  me  that  I  must  obey  God  rather  than 
man.  I  pity  you,  for  it  is  not  long  since  I 
thought  as  you  do,  and  would  have  acted  like 
you."  I  then  spoke  with  some  length  on  the 
sinful  state  of  all  men,  pastors  as  well  as  people, 
and  of  their  need  of  turning  away  from  .man  to 
God.  The  priests  then,  arose,  and  were  about 
to  leave  the  room,  when  I  exclaimed,  "  Stop  ! 
stop,  gentlemen;  you  should  not  get  angry  at  that. 
I  only  ask  you  to  prove  that  my  books  are  bad, 
and  you  willjiot  grant  my  request.  Is  it  not  true 
that  you,  and  I,  and  all  of  us,  need  to  be  con- 
verted ?"  Then  my  old  teacher  exclaimed : 
"  Ramon,  I  came  here  thinking  that  this  was  a 
bad  book,  and  intending  to  make  you  return  the 
money ;  but  since  that  cannot  be  proved,  I  will 
keep  it.  You  say  we  need  conversion  ;  that  is 
very  true,  and  my  wife  needs  it  as  much  as  I  do ; 
so  give  me  another  Testament  for  my  wife."  I 
then  went  up  into  my  room,  took  two  French 
Testaments  and  one  Spanish;  and  hastened 


SPANISH    MONK.  135 

down  again  ;  but  the  priests  had  left.  I  gave  the 
Testament  to  my  old  master,  and  I  then  address- 
ed the  other  spectators,  saying,  "Gentlemen, 
whilst  I  labor  for  Spaniards,  I  feel  much  interest 
in  the  French  also ;  will  you  not  also  receive  a 
Testament,  the  accusations  against  which  could 
not  be  proved  just  now  ?" — I  sold  two  copies. 

Among  the  persons  who  were  present  in  the 
hall,  were  several  young  men,  who,  when  I  of- 
fered them  a  Testament,  said  they  did  not  need 
it.  In  the  evening  one  of  them  came  to  me  and 
said  :  "  Sir,  I  refused  that  Testament  when  you 
offered  it  to  me,  because  my  companions  would 
have  laughed  at  me  and  called  me  a  bigot,  if  I 
had  bought  it.  But,  desirous  of  owning  one,  I  beg 
you  to  sell  it  to  me."  He  afterwards  added  :  "  I 
do  not  know  to  what  religion  I  belong.  My 
mother  was  a  Protestant,  and  I  was  baptized  in 
the  Protestant  church.  She  died,  and  my  fa- 
ther, a  Roman  Catholic,  brought  me  up  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith.  I  was  taught  the  trade 
of  a  baker ;  and  as  this  requires  labor  by  day 
and  night,  and  on  the  Sabbath,  I  would  never 
know  where  the  churches  are  if  I  did  not  see 
their  steeples."  I  then  showed  him  that  he  was 
in  a  sad  situation,  and  that  instead  of  doubting 


136  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

to  which  religion  he  belonged,  he  ought  to  ac- 
knowledge that  he  had  none  at  all.  I  announced 
the  Gospel  to  him  according  to  his  necessity, 
and  led  him  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Moureton,  deacon 
of  the  evangelical  church  at  Lyons.  This  brother, 
having  understood  the  subject  of  our  visit,  made 
a  fervent  prayer,  and  then  taught  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel  to  that  soul.  The  young  man, 
touched  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  exclaimed  :  "  Since 
I  cannot  keep  the  Sabbath  holy  in  my  present 
trade,  I  give  it  up,  and  I  beg  you  to  tell  me  in 
what  way  I  can  gain  my  living."  It  was  after- 
wards proposed  that  he  should  enter  an  evangel- 
ical institution  for  young  men  who  desire  to 
become  ministers  of  the  Word,  which  he  accept- 
ed. 

As  for  me,  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  and  his  ad- 
herents entered  an  accusation  against  me  in  the 
Police  Office,  of  troubling  my  countrymen  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  that  city,  and  of  selling 
books  without  having  a  bookseller's  warrant,  as 
is  required  by  law.  The  Police  Officers  obliged 
me  to  leave  the  town  immediately,  and  I  went 
to  Glay,  to  the  institution  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ja- 
quet. 


SPANISH    MONK.  137 


CHAPTER   X. 

The  Best  Medicine  and  the  Best  Physician. — The  Curate 
of  Salvatat. — My  Ex-General  Zorrilla. — My  Retreat  to 
Geneva. 

I  ARRIVED  at  Glay  on  the  18th  of  June,  1843. 
In  that  Christian  institution  I  was  greatly  blessed 
by  the  Lord.  I  there  gathered  new  strength  to 
resist  the  enemy,  and,  as  it  were,  collected 
smooth  stones  from  the  brook  for  another  Go- 
liath. After  three  months  I  left  Glay,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lissignol,  and  returned 
to  Montpellier.  On  my  way  I  was  enabled  to 
proclaim  the  gospel  to  many  persons,  in  the 
manner  which  I  will  here  relate.  It  was  on  the 
river  Rhone  that  the  Lord  gave  me  an  opportu- 
nity to  speak  of  Him  to  those  who  travelled  with 
me. 

Shortly  after  my  arrival  on  board  the  steam- 
boat, I  began  a  religious  conversation  with  two 
12* 


138  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

gentlemen  who  had  lodged  with  me  at  Lyons. 
They  took  more  interest  in  speaking  of  religious 
subjects,  than  in  taking  part  in  the  frivolous  oc- 
cupations of  those  who  surrounded  us.  The 
conversation  was  assuming  a  still  graver  charac- 
ter, when  we  were  interrupted  by  two  pedlars, 
dressed  in  the  robe  of  the  Augustine  monks. 
They  invited  us  to  buy  various  objects  which 
they  had  for  sale;  medals,  crosses,  scapularies, 
rosaries,  and  a  tract  in  honor  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  entitled,  "  The  Best  Medicine."  I  asked 
them  if  they  could  prove  to  me  that  the  Word  of 
God  authorized  them  to  distribute  such  objects ; 
and  as  this  unexpected  question  greatly  embar- 
rassed them,  they  began  to  preach  about  the  ap- 
probation of  these  amulets  given  by  the  Popes, 
and  the  prodigies  which  they  had  performed  on 
those  who  humbly  trusted  in  them.  Neither 
waves,  nor  lightning,  nor  even  the  power  of  Sa- 
tan could,  according  to  them,  overcome  the  per- 
son who  wore  one  of  these  precious  articles. 
Although  I  requested  them  several  times  to  al- 
low me  to  speak,  they  continued  to  preach.  I 
saw  that  their  only  object  was  to  prevent  my 
being  heard ;  and  I  therefore  began  also  to 
preach  aloud  to  those  who  were  crowding  around 


SPANISH    MONK.  139 

us.  This  method  succeeded.  Soon  numerous 
passages  of  the  Scriptures  took  the  place  of  the 
vain  and  lying  declamation  of  the  priests. 
Several  gentlemen  gave  their  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  the  Word  of  God.  I  had  in  my  trunk 
the  well-known  tract  :  "  Who  is  the  Best  Physi- 
cian 1"  I  immediately  took  out  a  number  of  cop- 
ies, which  I  offered  to  the  travellers  in  exchange 
for  the  "  Best  Medicine"  of  the  priests,  their 
medals,  scapularies,  and  rosaries.  When  I  had 
collected  a  quantity  of  these,  I  threw  them  into 
the  river.  I  had  several  copies  of  the  Spanish 
Testament,  but  only  six  in  French,  which  I  sold 
on  this  occasion. 

An  English  Christian,  Mr.  Evans,  to  whom  I 
offered  the  above  named  tract,  requesting  him 
to  give  me  in  return  any  thing  which  he  might 
have  received  from  the  priests,  accepted  it  with 
pleasure,  saying  that  he  had  not  bought  any 
thing  of  them,  to  which  he  added  :  "  May  God 
bless  you  !  and  since  you  are  occupied  in  dis- 
tributing His  Word,  and  in  destroying  the 
traffic  of  medals,  accept  this  medal  ;"  and 
he  handed  me  a  gold  coin. 

At  last  I  arrived  at  Montpellier,  where  I  found 
two  other  brethren,  colporteurs  of  Dauphiny,  with 


140  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

whom  I  united,  so  that  he  who  formerly  wore 
the  cassock,  carried  on  his  back  a  pack  weigh- 
ing thirty  pounds.1  We  travelled  over  the  de- 
partment of  L'Heraut.  This  winter  campaign 
was  greatly  blessed  to  our  souls,  and  I  needed  it 
very  much ;  for,  though  I  was  a  Christian,  I 
knew  but  little  yet  of  the  Christian  life.  Since 
my  conversion.  I  had  been  \almost  entirely  left 
to  myself.  The  Lord  made  me  advance  more 
and  more  by  placing  in  relation  with  the  Chris- 
tians of  various  places  which  we  visited. 
We  could  not  distribute  as  many  of  our  books 
in  that  department  as  we  had  anticipated  ;  both 
because  it  had  been  visited  by  colporteurs  in  the 
preceding  year,  and  because  we  found  there  two 
other  brethren  sent  thither  by  the  French  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society,  but  especially  because  of  the 
opposition  of  the  priests.  We  were  often  obliged 
to  go  to  the  curates  to  verify  our  Bibles,  which 
they  accused  of  being  falsified. 

On  entering  the  little  town  of  Salvatat,  we 


1  During  my  colportage  among  the  Spaniards,  I  carried 
my  books  in  a  trunk,  and  not  on  my  back .  On  my  arrival 
in  the  towns,  I  put  two  or  three  in  my  pocket,  and  went 
to  meet  my  countrymen. 


SPANISH    MONR.  141 

went  into  a  tavern  to  rest,  after  which  we 
went  from  door  to  door.  Almost  all  those  to 
whom  we  offered  the  Scriptures  accepted  them 
without  hesitation.  We  therefore  supposed  that 
no  opposition  had  been  made  yet  by  the  curate. 
When  we  had  sold  a  large  number  of  copies,  to 
our  great  astonishment,  we  heard  the  public 
crier  with  his  trumpet,  repeating  to  the  people 
the  following  proclamation  :  "  His  Reverence 
the  Curate,  with  the  consent  of  the  May  or,  gives 
notice  to  the  people  that  two  pedlars  are  going 
about  the  town  selling  bad  books,  coming  from 
the  Protestants ;  and  these  men  desire  thus  to 
make  you  change  your  religion.  All  those  who 
have  bought  their  books  are  invited  to  come  to 
the  inn,  where  the  Curate  will  be,  to  force  these 
pedlars  to  take  back  their  books  and  return  the 
money."  Having  heard  this  proclamation,  we 
immediately  went  to  the  inn,  where  we  found 
the  Curate.  He  scarcely  allowed  us  time  to  bid 
him  good-day,  and  exclaimed,  "  Gentlemen,  it  is 
my  will  that  you  should  leave  this  place  instant- 
ly ;  but  you  must  first  return  the  money  you  re- 
ceived for  your  books."  I  replied,  "  Sir,  you 
must  remember  that  you  are  not  the  Mayor,  but 
simply  a  man  dressed  in  a  cassock ;  and  even 


142  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

were  you  the  magistrate,  I  think  you  would  ex- 
ceed your  duty  in  expelling  persons  who  have 
passports.  As  to  what  you  say  about  our  books, 
I  would  like  to  know  what  are  your  reasons." 
He  answered,  "  I  have  not  read  them  ;  but  it  is 
enough  to  know  that  the  Protestants  send  them." 
I  returned,  "  Then  if  you  have  not  read  them, 
you  are  very  hasty  in  saying  that  these  books 
are  bad ;  for  you  see  that  the  outside  is  new  ; 
and,  as  for  what  is  inside,  I  will  ask  you,  if  a 
Protestant  brought  you  a  purse  of  money,  would 
you  refuse  it  because  it  came  from  him  ?  You 
would  simply  examine  whether  the  money  was 
good  or  not.  This  is  what  you  ought  to  do,  and 
I  require  that  you  should  prove  whether  our  Bi- 
bles are  falsified,  and  whether  the  other  books 
are  not  conformed  to  them."  He  replied, 
"  Since  the  Protestants  do  not  believe  that 
Christ  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  those  books 
must  say  the  same  thing."  "  Mr.  Curate,"  I 
returned,  "  I  will  not  take  you  at  your  word  ; 
you  did  not  mean  that."  "  I  have  said  that  the 
Protestants  do  not  believe  this,  and  I  repeat  it." 
"  Gentlemen  and  ladies,"  said  I  to  those  around 
us,  "  do  you  hear  what  the  Curate  says  ?  Now 
let  each  open  his  Testament  at  the  first  chapter 


SPANISH    MONK.  143 

of  Matthew,  and  the  eighteenth  verse. — Does 
riot  this  book,  which  comes  from  the  Protest- 
ants, declare  the  contrary  of  what  the  Curate 
has  said  ?"  I  then  began  to  explain  that  the 
Bible  was  indeed  a  bad  book  for  the  priests, 
since  it  condemns  error  and  establishes  truth ; 
which  I  supported  by  many  quotations  from  the 
Scriptures.  After  I  had  proclaimed  the  truth 
of  the  gospel  with  energy,  and  had  shown  him 
how  much  the  Romish  Church  had  deviated 
from  it,  one  of  the  gentlemen  present  exclaimed, 
"  Now,  then,  Mr.  Curate,  when  you  are  in  the 
pulpit,  you  say  what  you  please,  and  there  is 
nobody  to  answer  you  ;  but  you  have  found  your 
equal  to-day.  Answer  this  man  if  you  can."  I 
interrupted  this  address  by  quotations  from  the 
Divine  Word,  exhorting  them  all  to  seek  for 
truth  in  unity  and  love.  Several  other  persons 
exclaimed,  "  Mr.  Curate,  this  man  is  right." 
Overcome  by  the  excitement,  the  poor  Curate 
shook  and  trembled,  and  in  a  few  moments 
swooned  away.  He  was  soon  brought  to  his 
senses  by  the  immediate  care  of  the  bystanders. 
As  I  stood  near  him,  he  took  me  by  the  hand, 
and  with  tears  told  me,  that  he  was  convinced 
that  it  was  the  Word  of  God  which  guided  us, 


144  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

that  he  had  misrepresented  us,  and  was  ready  to 
go  with  us  from  house  to  house,  to  retract  what 
he  had  said  against  the  Protestants,  and  would 
help  us  in  the  distribution  of  the  Word  of  God. 
"  I  acknowledge,"  said  he,  "  that  the  Church 
of  Rome  has  held  doctrines,  as  you  have  just 
demonstrated,  which  are  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  and  that  we  ministers  do  not  act 
as  we  ought  to.  Pray  for  me."  "  What !  pray 
for  you!"  I  exclaimed;  "of  course  I  will,  and 
that  immediately.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  am 
going  to  shut  the  door,  and,  if  you  please,  we 
will  pray  together."  When  I  had  done,  my 
companion  prayed,  full  of  love  and  earnestness. 
I  then  said  to  the  Curate,  "  Mr.  Curate,  will 
you  not  pray  too  1"  He  replied,  with  tears  in 
his  eyes,  "  No,  no,  sir,  all  has  been  said  ;  I  can 
only  add,  Amen.  Come,"  said  he,  rising,  "  my 
house  is  open  to  you  ;  we  will  take  tea  together." 
We  went,  and  spent  the  evening  with  him,  and, 
in  familiar  conversation,  we  compared  together 
the  translation  of  De  Saci  with  that  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate.  He  bought  eighteen  Testaments,  with  a 
number  of  tracts.  The  next  day  he  told  two  little 
children  to  follow  us,  carrying  Testaments,  and 
taking  us  by  the  arm,  led  us  from  house  to 


SPANISH    MONK.  145 

house,  saying,  "  Buy  them,  buy  them,  they  are 
very  good."  We  sold  five  hundred  copies,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  go  and  procure  more,  which 
we  left  at  a  depdt.  We  separated  with  much  af- 
fection. May  God  abundantly  bless  the  seed 
sown  in  that  place  ! 

We  left  the  department  of  L'Heraut,  and  we 
travelled  over  that  of  Aveyron.  Whilst  colport- 
ing  for  the  French,  I  neglected  no  occasion  to 
sow  the  good  seed  among  my  countrymen  also, 
whenever  I  met  them.  At  St.  Affrique,  a  town 
in  that  department,  after  having  sold  to  them 
five  Testaments  and  some  religious  tracts,  I  in- 
vited them  to  attend  a  religious  meeting,  which 
was  to  take  place  on  that  day.  We  meditated 
the  word  of  God  in  both  languages,  and  prayed 
in  Spanish  as  well  as  in  French.  This  made 
a  great  excitement  among  the  priests,  and  par- 
ticularly alarmed  our  ex-general,  Zorrilla,  who 
had  resided  in  that  town  since  our  expulsion 
from  Spain.  This  general,  as  well  as  some 
priests  and  gentlemen  of  St.  Affrique,  desired  to 
see  me.  They  met  together  at  the  house  of  the 
general,  where  they  decided  to  endeavor  to  per- 
suade me  to  leave  my  vocation  of  colporteur,  and 
to  return  to  the  yoke  of  Rome,  holding  out  the 
13 


146  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

inducement  of  a  sum  of  money.  Consequently 
they  sent  the  servant  of  my  ex-general  to  invite 
me  to  make  him  a  visit.  I  went,  accompa- 
nied by  my  two  colleagues.  The  general  ex- 
pressed his  regret  at  seeing  me  a  member  of 
the  Protestant  sect,  and  refused  absolutely  to 
accept  the  books  which  contain  the  good  news 
of  salvation.  He  did  not  insult  us,  however  ;  on 
the  contrary,  with  the  most  cunning  hypocrisy, 
he  invited  me  to  dine  with  him,  rnd  to  send 
away  my  two  companions,  as  he  desired  to  say  a 
few  words  to  me  more  particularly.  I  thanked 
him  for  his  offer,  and  told  him  that  he  could 
speak  with  perfect  freedom  in  presence  of  my 
companions  ;  but  he  would  not  do  so.  He  then 
requested  me  to  return  alone  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon.  "  I  will  then, '  said  he,  "  send  for 
several  respectable  gentlemen  of  the  town,  who 
wish  to  speak  with  you,  and  to  make  you  a  happy 
man.  I  believe,"  he  added,  "  that  they  think  of 
setting  up  a  shop  for  you,  so  that  you  may  earn 
a  living  with  less  trouble.  You  have  humbled 
yourself  too  much,  sir,"  he  continued;  "you 
are  injuring  your  family  and  your  own  dignity." 
I  was  going  to  express  to  him  how  happy  I  was  to 
be  one  of  the  laborers  employed  in  the  Lord's 


SPANISH    MONK..  147 

vineyard,  when  he  interrupted  me,  saying,  "  We 
will  speak  of  all  that  at  four  o'clock."  I  told 
him  that  I  could  not  promise  to  return  at  that 
hour,  unless  he  would  allow  my  two  companions 
to  come  with  me.  When  I  saw  that  he  per- 
sisted in  desiring  none  but  me,  I  promised  to  be 
there  at  the  appointed  hour.  After  having  left 
him,  we  united  with  the  brethren  of  that  town 
to  pray,  after  which  we  decided  together  that  it 
was  not  proper  that  I  should  go  alone  to  the 
house  of  the  general,  and  that,  since  I  had 
promised  to  do  so,  there  was  no  other  way  than 
to  write  boldly  to  him,  that  if  he  was  not  willing 
that  my  friends  should  accompany  me,  I  could 
not  come.  This  is  what  Zorrilla  answered  :  "  I 
did  not  invite  your  companions,  because  the 
gentlemen  who  take  an  interest  in  you,  and  de- 
sire to  speak  to  you,  have  nothing  to  do  with 
them.  You  have  nothing  to  fear  from  us  ;  we 
desire  to  speak  to  you  of  Montpellier,  for  some 
persons  have  written  to  us  from  that  place,  as 
well  as  from  Lyons  and  Besangon.  I  am  deeply 
affected,  with  them,  at  seeing  you  in  greater 
danger  than  Mahomet.  You  have  wholly  de- 
ceived me,  for  I  did  not  expect  that  of  you 
when  you  were  under  my  command.  The  re- 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

membrance  that  you  are  a  Spaniard  pains  me. 
Return  to  the  Church  which  you  have  forsaken, 
and  you  will  be  happy  in  your  body  and  your 

SOul.  DE  ZORRILLA." 

The  general  and  his  friends  of  St.  Affrique, 
not  having  succeeded  in  their  attempt  to  over- 
come me  by  flattery,  tried  persecution.  They 
accused  me  before  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
of  forming  a  plot  among  those  of  the  Spaniards 
and  French,  who,  not  having  been  forewarned, 
were  seduced  by  my  insinuations.  But  the 
Lord,  who  overthrows  the  machinations  of  the 
wicked,  permitted  that  they  should  not  give  my 
right  name.  In  the  mandate  of  arrest  which 
was  sent  to  me,  I  was  indeed  designated  by  the 
name  of  Ramon,  a  native  of  Olot,  in  Catalonia, 
ex-student,  ex-secretary  of  a  general,  27  years  of 
age ;  but,  unfortunately  for  my  adversaries,  in- 
stead of  Monsalvatge,  the  arrest  bore  the  initial 
N. 

On  the  23d  of  March,  1844,  at  six  in  the 
morning,  the  officers  came  to  the  inn  of  the  vil- 
lage of  Soulier  (Tarne),  where  I  had  spent  the 
night  with  my  companion.  They  asked  leave 
to  see  our  passports.  Though  these  were  all 
right,  they  said  that  it  was  I  whom  they  wanted, 


SPANISH    MONK.  149 

and  they  led  me  to  the  mayor  of  the  next  town. 
The  latter  would  not  consent  to  my  arrest,  since 
my  name  was  not  similar  to  that  on  the  pa- 
per. They  therefore  only  copied  my  passport, 
and  sent  me  back.  As  soon  as  I  was  at  liberty, 
we  went  to  the  town  of  Bastide-Rouairouge, 
which  was  our  dep6t  and  the  centre  of  our  la- 
bors. The  pastor  of  that  place  had  received  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Lissignol,  saying  that  he  had  re- 
ceived recent  letters  from  the  friends  at  St.  Af- 
frique,  telling  him  that  the  Spanish  general  had 
succeeded  in  procuring  my  arrest.  This  was 
enough  to  make  us  decide  to  take  the  stage- 
coach and  return  to  Montpellier.  We  left  with 
much  regret  a  field  of  labor  in  which  the  Lord 
had  comforted  us  by  great  success. 

When  we  arrived  at  Montpellier,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Lissignol  hastened  to  procure  a  passport  to 
Geneva  for  me.  I  therefore  set  out  for  the 
"  Christian  Rome,"  where  I  arrived  in  safety, 
on  the  4th  of  April,  1844. 


13* 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 


CHAPTER    XI. 

* 

My  Countryman  Yagues. — Calderon's  Visit  to  Madrid  — 
Failure  of  my  Plan  to  Return  to  Spain. — The  desired 
one  arrives  unexpectedly.  —  My  Departure  from  Ge- 
neva. 

I  WAS  received  at  Geneva,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed, with  the  greatest  affection,  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Evangelical  Society.  The  Lord  led 
me  thither  in  a  very  remarkable  manner,  as  the 
reader  has  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter.  He 
knew  better  than  I  did,  that  I  needed  to  reside 
there  some  time — that  the  brethren  there,  abun- 
dantly nourished  by  the  Word  of  Truth,  might 
impart  to  me  the  spiritual  gifts  with  which  God 
had  blessed  them.  The  instruction  which  I  re- 
ceived there,  strengthened  and  encouraged  me 
to  enter  into  the  struggle  with  ignorance  and 
superstition  in  the  New  World.  One  thing 
which  greatly  added  to  the  happiness  and  bless- 


SPANISH    MONK.  151 

ing  which  I  experienced  during  my  residence  in 
that  city,  was  my  acquaintance  with  a  fellow- 
countrymen,  named  Yagues.  Like  all  others 
of  my  nation  born  in  the  Romish  Church,  and 
in  strict  subjection  to  Papal  influences,  he  lived 
till  the  age  of  thirty  in  that  false  tranquillity  in 
which  the  members  of  that  Church  dwell.  It 
was  by  the  instrumentality  of  Dr.  Malan,  that 
the  Lord  brought  him  out  of  darkness  into  His 
marvellous  light.  He  is  one  whose  Christian 
life  is  in  harmony  with  the  energy  and  enthu- 
siasm of  the  Spanish  character.  He  is  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  French,  Italian,  and  English 
languages,  and  has  travelled  much  in  different 
countries,  and  especially  in  Italy,  where  he  held 
secret  meetings  in  every  place  which  he  visited, 
and  was  twice  thrown  into  prison  on  account  of 
the  distribution  of  the  Scriptures.  In  several 
places  in  France  and  Italy,  he  has  been  the 
founder  of  prosperous  churches.  He  is  about 
forty  years  of  age,  and  has  a  family. 

Among  the  blessings  which  I  received  in  his 
company,  I  can  never  forget  an  evening  which  I 
spent  with  the  brethren  of  Geneva.  It  was  at 
an  Agape,  or  love-feast,  which  it  is  customary  to 
hold  there,  on  the  plan  of  those  of  the  primitive 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

Christians.  On  this  occasion  he  addressed  the  as- 
sembly on  these  words  from  the  parable  of  the 
Marriage  Supper  :  "  Compel  them  to  come  in." 
He  spoke  to  the  brethren  who  were  present  of 
the  necessity  of  prayer  for  the  Spanish  nation 
particularly,  that  peace  may  be  re-established, 
and  that  the  light  of  the  Gospel  may  enlighten 
that  people,  zealous  without  knowledge.  To 
me,  in  particular,  he  addressed  the  exhortations 
which  the  importance  of  my  mission  seemed  to 
require. 

I  had  been  but  a  few  months  at  Geneva  when 
my  desires  were  directed  anew  towards  Spain. 
I  felt  an  unconquerable  longing  to  visit  my  na- 
tive land,  and  make  known  to  my  countrymen 
the  Gospel  of  which  they  are  so  ignorant.  My 
thoughts  were  daily  turned  to  this  subject,  when 
I  received  a  letter  from  Calderon,  a  Spanish 
priest,  converted  since  1823  to  the  evangelical 
doctrine.  He  was  a  laborer  of  the  Toulouse 
Society,  residing  at  Bordeaux.  In  the  spring  of 
1844  he  was  requested  by  Christian  friends  to 
visit  the  city  of  Madrid,  for  the  purpose  of  see- 
ing what  effect  had  been  produced  by  the  Bibles 
which  that  remarkable  man,  Mr.  Borrow,  dis- 
tributed there  a  few  years  agoT He  readily 


SPANISH    MONK.  153 

complied  with  the  request ;  and  the  letters  which 
he  wrote  me  communicated  some  of  the  results 
of  his  investigations. 

Mr.  Borrow  tells  us,  in  his  interesting  book. 
"  The  Bible  in  Spain,"  that  he  distributed  a 
considerable  number  of  Bibles  in  the  city  of  Ma- 
drid. In  visiting  many  houses,  Calderon  in- 
quired whether  the  people  had  the  Bible,  and 
often  he  was  answered  in  the  affirmative.  In 
some  houses  he  ascertained  that  the  owners 
highly  prized  their  treasure,  and  showed  that  the 
Word  of  God  had  been  accompanied  by  the  in- 
fluences of  His  Spirit. 

My  friend  related  in  his  letter  a  case  which 
greatly  interested  me.  Having  been  introduced 
to  a  family  the  father  of  which  was  very  ill,  he 
conversed  with  him  in  a  friendly  and  serious  man- 
ner, and  then  proposed  to  pray  with  him,  which 
was  joyfully  accepted.  On  rising  from  his 
knees  after  fervent  petitions  to  God,  and  the  free 
expression  of  evangelical  sentiments,  the  sick 
man  eagerly  extended  his  hand,  and,  giving  him 
an  animated  look  and  a  brotherly  grasp,  exclaim- 
ed, "  Why,  I  see  that  you  too  have  been  saved  by 
the  blood  of  Christ !"  "  How  did  you  learn  that 
salvation  comes  in  that  way  ?"  inquired  Calde- 


154  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

ron,  with  equal  surprise.  "  From  a  book  which 
I  have,"  replied  he;  "  bring  it  hither,"  he  add- 
ed, addressing  one  of  his  children.  "  Here  it 
is  ;  I  received  it  from  an  Englishman  some  time 
ago."  It  was  one  of  Sorrow's  Bibles. 

A  man  of  rank  of  whom  Calderon  made  the 
inquiry  whether  he  had  a  Bible,  replied  that  he 
had;  he  had  bought  it  from  an  Englishman, 
thinking  that  the  book  exposed  the  absurdities 
of  the  priests  ;  and  since  he  had  not  found  any 
thing  on  the  subject,  he  had  laid  it  aside.  My 
friend  then  said  :  "  Sir,  you  must  have  read  it 
very  lightly,  then ;  for  I  can  point  out  many 
passages  to  you  which  unveil  those  absurdities." 
This  gentleman  being  curious  to  see  them,  he 
showed  them  to  him.  He  then  added  that  the 
gentleman  would  be  very  unhappy  if  he  sought 
to  see  nothing  but  the  priests  in  that  book.  He 
asked  him  if  his  soul  was  at  peace ;  and  as  he 
could  not  answer  in  the  affirmative,  Calderon 
spoke  to  him  with  much  solemnity  on  the  sub- 
ject of  personal  religion.  On  parting,  the  gen- 
tleman said  :  "  May  God  forgive  me  for  having 
neglected  so  long  the  study  of  a  book  which  I 
possessed,  without  endeavoring  to  ascertain  its 
contents.  Come  often  to  see  me,  and  I  will  be 


SPANISH    MONK.  155 

happy  to  hear  you  explain,  as  you  have  done  to- 
day, a  few  verses  of  this  book,  which  I  will 
henceforth  make  a  better  use  of." 

My  friend  remained  four  months  at  Madrid, 
without  suffering  any  persecution.  One  reason 
of  this  was  that  he  made  no  effort  to  distribute 
the  Word  of  God,  his  only  object  being  to  see 
what  effect  had  been  produced  by  other  travel- 
lers. Another  was  that  he  had  never  taken  any 
part  in  the  civil  wars  of  Spain,  having  been  in 
France  during  that  time,  and  consequently,  he 
was  free  from  all  suspicion  of  political  or  reli- 
gious objects. 

Seeing  by  these  letters  that  my  friend  met 
with  no  opposition  in  his  residence  at  Madrid, 
the  thought  came  to  my  mind  :  Might  I  not  also, 
with  God's  blessing,  visit  this  and  other  parts  of 
my  country  without  meeting  with  much  opposi- 
tion ?  The  place  which  appeared  to  me  most 
favorable  for  the  object  of  my  mission,  which 
would  be  to  establish  a  school,  was  Majorca, 
Majorca  is  an  island  inhabited  by  a  people 
speaking  our  language,  but  who  have  much  in- 
tercourse with  other  countries,  and  have  conse- 
quently more  liberality  and  toleration  than  the 
inhabitants  of  the  interior  of  Spain. 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

I  expressed  my  views  and  desires  to  the  Soci- 
ety, by  whom  I  was  immediately  sent  to  Berne, 
where  the  Spanish  ambassador  near  the  Swiss 
government  resides,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
of  him  the  documents  necessary  for  my  mission 
to  Majorca.  The  ambassador,  after  having  re- 
quired an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  government  of 
Spain,  gave  me  a  passport,  which,  far  from  be- 
ing such  as  I  desired,  was  such  as  the  French 
government  had  commanded  to  be  given  to  the 
Carlist  refugees.  It  was  my  wish  to  embark  at 
Marseilles,  so  as  to  avoid  passing  through  my 
native  town,  where  I  would  probably  have  found 
a  grave.  But  the  passport  given  me  was  valid, 
not  for  a  year  as  they  are  usually,  but  for  one 
month ;  and  moreover,  every  town  and  village 
through  which  I  must  pass  was  designated,  and 
among  them  was  Olot.  On  my  return  to  Gene- 
va, the  Society  saw  the  danger  to  which  I  would 
be  exposed,  and  told  me  that  I  must  renounce 
my  project  of  going  to  Spain.  However  safely 
Calderon  may  have  travelled  in  that  country, 
I  then  saw  plainly  that,  as  an  ex-Carlist,  I  could 
not  pursue  my  mission  there  in  the  way  that  he 
did,  even  if  I  succeeded  in  avoiding  my  native 
town. 


SPANISH    MONK.  157 

Nevertheless,  my  desire  to  labor  among  my 
fellow-countrymen  did  not  decrease,  although 
the  door  of  Spain  was  closed  against  me.  My 
eyes  turned  then  towards  Africa,  where  there 
are  several  thousand  Spaniards  But  having  the 
presentiment  that,  being  under  the  French  gov- 
ernment, I  would  meet  with  the  same  difficulties 
which  I  met  with  formerly  in  France,  I  thought 
if  at  least  I  had  a  companion,  I  would  go  with 
more  courage  and  joy. 

One  day  the  President  of  the  American 
Swiss  Committee  came  to  me  with  a  letter  in 
his  hand,  and  said  :  "  You  have  often  prayed  for 
a  companion  of  your  nation,  to  Avork  with  you, 
and  comfort  you; — here  he  is."  So  saying,  he 
informed  me  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from 
a  pastor  at  Dijon,  who  wrote  that  a  Spanish  cu- 
rate, who  had  forsaken  Rome  and  her  errors 
from  a  conviction  that  such  was  his  duty,  was 
desirous  of  studying  evangelical  theology,  and 
becoming  a  Protestant  minister  ;  and,  if  accept- 
ed by  the  Evangelical  Society,  he  would  come 
immediately  to  Geneva.  This  new  convert,  the 
letter  said,  had  been  brought  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  by  reading  a  Bible  which  a  Spanish 
colporteur  had  given  him  about  a  year  before ; 
14 


158  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

and  he  proved  his  sincerity  by  resigning  his 
ministry,  and  exposing  himself  to  contempt  and 
persecution. 

This  news  gave  me  sincere  pleasure,  and  I 
anxiously  awaited  the  arrival  of  my  countryman, 
whom  I  looked  upon  as  a  future  friend  and  fel- 
low-laborer in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.  At 
length  he  arrived.  How  great  was  my  surprise 
and  joy  when  I  recognized  in  him  a  priest  to 
whom  I  had  myself  presented,  a  year  before ,  the 
blessed  volume  which  was  the  means  of  his  con- 
version ! 

I  advised  my  friend  Sanchez  to  write  frequent- 
ly to  his  Catholic  friends  in  France.  He  did 
so ;  particularly  he  kept  up  an  interesting  corre- 
spondence with  a  priest,  the  result  of  which  he 
is  about  to  publish. 

The  Society  at  Geneva,  seeing  that  Sanchez 
needed  to  remain  some  time  in  the  Theological 
School,  wrote  to  the  Foreign  Evangelical  Socie- 
ty of  New- York,  to  inquire  if  I  could  not  be 
useful  on  this  continent  among  those  who  speak 
the  Spanish  tongue.  Foreseeing  that  the 
American  Society  would  countenance  the  pro- 
posal of  that  of  Geneva,  I  wrote  to  my  parents 
in  Spain,  bidding  them  adieu.  I  said  to  them 


SPANISH    MONK.  159 

that  I  expected  soon  to  leave  Europe,  to  go  and 
proclaim  the  good  news  of  salvation  in  a  distant 
country.  I  begged  them,  since  the  letters  which  I 
had  sent  them  every  month  since  my  conversion 
had  not  drawn  from  them  a  reply  since  July,  1842, 
at  the  very  least,  if  they  would   not  enter  into 
family  details,  to  write  their  names  on  a  sheet 
of  paper,  and  send  it  to  me.     Then  at  any  rate 
I  could  have  left  in  peace,  knowing  that  they 
were  alive.     A  short  time  after  this  a  letter  was 
received  from  the  New- York  Committee,  saying 
that  I  could  embark  ;  and  I  had  to  leave  Gene- 
va without  receiving  a  word  from  my  home  to 
gladden  my  heart !     Nevertheless,  the  grief  oc- 
casioned by  the  rejection  of  my  parents  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh,  was  mitigated  by  the  Christian 
consolation  of  my  brethren  in  Jesus  of  Geneva  ; 
whom  I  left  on  the  llth  of  November,  1844, 
with  the  conviction  that  their  prayers  will  often 
arise  towards  the   throne  of  grace  for  one  who 
needs  them  so  much  !     The  sweet  remembrance 
of  their  affection  and  of  the  pleasant  hours  that 
we  spent  together,  will  never  be  effaced  from 
my  mind. 


160  THE    LIFE    OF    A 


CHAPTER    XII. 

My  feelings  towards  those  who  think  me  in  error. — Pas- 
sage across  the  Atlantic. — Address  to  my  American 
brethren. — Conclusion. 

AFTER  having  bid  adieu  to  my  relations  and  to 
my  brethren  in  Christ,  I  feel  the  need  of  ex- 
pressing what  great  consolation  and  peace  the 
Lord  gives  me  even  in  the  midst  of  my  afflictions, 
and  what  feelings  I  entertain  towards  my  pa- 
rents who  have  rejected  me,  and  towards  others 
who  have  persecuted  me. 

He  who  has  said,]"  Blessed  are  ye  when  men 
shall  persecute  you,"  sustains  me  in  the  midst  of 
my  trials,  and  gives  me  strength  to  address  with 
charity  my  parents,  as  well  as  my  fellow-country- 
men, and  all  others  who  think  me  to  be  in  error, 
reminding  them  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
about  to  endure  the  shameful  death  of  the  cross, 
said  to  the  women  who  were  weeping  :  "  Weep 
not  for  me,  but  weep  for  yourselves,  and  for  your 


SPANISH    MONK.  161 

children."1     Far  be  it  from  me  to  compare  my 
position  with  that  of  the  glorious  Saviour  ;  yet  I 
venture,  in  His  example,  to  say  to  you,  Dear  pa- 
rents, dear  friends,  weep  not  at  seeing  me  in  a 
communion  exposed  to  the  hatred  and  persecu- 
tion of  the  world  ;  for  the  soul  is  more  precious 
than  the  body.   If  here  below  I  bear  the  cross  of 
Jesus,  I  will  wear  His  crown  above.    But  weep, 
yes,  weep  for  yourselves,  and  your  children,  and 
for  your  friends  who  are  exposed  to  the  same 
danger.     Go  to  Jesus,  for  He  laments  that  you 
resist  His  call :  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that 
ye  might  have  life."*  Oh  !  you  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  value  of  Jesus'  blood!  in  desiring  that  I 
should  return  to  your  midst,  you  wish  for  me  the 
greatest  evil  that  can  ever  happen  to  me.  I  pray 
for  you,  but  I  cannot  follow  you.     "  For  it  had 
been  better  for  me  not  to  have   known  the  way 
of  righteousness,  than,  after  I  have  known  it,  to 
turn  from  the  holy  commandment  delivered  unto 
me."3     I  hope  that  God  will  make  perfect  His 
strength  in  my  weakness,  and  that,,  as  it  has 
pleased  Him  to  fulfil  in  me  the  work  of  His  grace, 
He  will  not  abandon  it  till  He  has  raised  me  to 

'Luke  23:  28.         2  John  5  :  40.          3  2  Peter  2:  21. 

14% 


162  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

the  height  of  His  glory.  He  will  grant  me 
strength  to  "  be  faithful  unto  death,"  to  receive 
from  him  "  a  crown  of  life."1  Instead  of  that 
fearful  misfortune  which  you  desire  for  me,  to 
return  to  the  yoke  of  Rome,  I  desire  for  you  the 
greatest  of  all  blessings,  that  is,  that  you  be  like 
me,  except  the  trials  that  accompany  the  holy 
and  divine  profession  of  the  Gospel.  O,  beloved 
fellow-countrymen  !  that  you  could  all  read  in 
my  heart  the  peace  and  sweet  tranquillity  of  my 
conscience  !  You  would  then  prefer  these  joys 
to  all  the  riches  of  the  earth,  to  all  the  luxuries 
of  this  life,  which  vanish  like  a  sound.  If  it  be 
not  the  Lord's  will  to  unite  us  together  by  the 
sacred  bonds  of  that  divine  grace,  at  least  let  a 
patriotic  love  remain. 

And  you  too,  my  dear  parents  !  if  like  many 
others  you  believe  me  to  be  in  error,  pity  me  ; 
do  not  hate  me.  As  for  me,  far  from  having  the 
least  thought  of  hatred  towards  you  or  towards 
those  who  have  persecuted  and  do  still  persecute 
me,  I  feel,  on  the  contrary,  new  flames  of  love 
arising  in  my  heart,  and,  as  I  have  said,  my  soul 
is  lifted  up  to  God,  entreating  Him  to  give  you 

1  Rev.  2  :  10. 


SPANISH    MONK.  163 

all  a  faith  of  similar  value,  and  to  draw  into  His 
service  by  the  bands  of  His  love ;  so  that  we  may 
have  the  joy  of  loving  one  another  on  this  earth, 
and  the  consolation  of  seeing  one  another  united 
in  that  Church  which  fights  beneath  the  stand- 
ard of  Jesus  Christ.  Yes !  may  He  grant  that 
one  day  we  be  transported  into  the  bosom  of  the 
victorious  Church  in  heaven,  there  to  praise 
Him  forever  with  those  who  have  washed  their 
garments  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  !  Such 
is  the  prayer  which  I  offer  up  in  your  behalf.. 

It  was  with  sadness  that,  on  the  18th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1S44,  about  to  leave  Europe,  I  used  the 
language  of  Paul  to  my  fellow  countrymen  :  "  It 
was  necessary  that  the  word  of  God  should  first 
have  been  spoken  to  you  ;  but  seeing  ye  put  it 
from  you,  lo,  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles."1 

He  who  says :  "When  thou  passest  through  the 
waters,  I  will  be  with  thee,"2  fulfilled  this  prom- 
ise towards  me,  during  my  voyage  across  the 
ocean,  in  the  ship  St.  Nicholas. 

On  the  30th  November,  in  mounting  the  stair- 
case from  the  cabin,  I  fell  from  the  top  down- 
wards. The  blow  which  I  received  on  my  head, 

1  Acts  13:  46.  8  Is.  43:  £ 


THE    LIFE    OF    A 

deprived  me  of  my  senses  for  some  hours.  Those 
around  me  almost  gave  me  up,  and  I  myself 
thought  that  the  moment  was  come  in  which  the 
Lord  chose  to  call  me  to  Himself.  But,  thanks 
to  God,  I  was  enabled  to  rise  from  my  bed  after 
some  days,  and  I  reached  the  American  shore 
the  3d  of  January,  1845,  in  the  enjoyment  of 
perfect  health. 

My  dear  American  brethren,  I  cannot  but 
bless  God  and  thank  you  for  the  sympathy  which 
you  have  shown  me,  and  especially  for  the  wel- 
come given  me  by  the  members  of  the  Foreign 
Evangelical  Society,  under  the  direction  of 
whom  I  have  placed  myself,  to  labor  in  the  field 
of  evangelization  among  those  who  speak  my 
language,  in  whatever  land  it  may  please  the  So- 
ciety to  send  me  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

The  good  tidings  of  your  churches  which  I 
learned  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  from 
the  descendants  of  those  who  transmitted  to  you 
•the  evangelical  doctrine,  made  me  long  more 
•than  once  to  witness  myself  the  almost  complete 
reformation  in  the  United  States.  In  truth,  the 
number  of  Protestants  astonishes  me  ;  and  the 
Christian  life  of  those  who  know  the  Father 
through  the  Son  astonishes  me  still  more.  When 


SPANISH    MONK.  165 

I  look  at  myself  in  the  mirror  of  your  zeal  and 
activity,  I  find  reason  to  humble  myself  in  my 
lukewarmness.  And  often  in  my  neglect  1  feel 
myself  reproved  by  this  solemn  voice  :  "  Be  not 
afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace  ;  for  1 
am  with  thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to 
hurt  thee."1 

I  know,  my  dear  friends,  that  I  should  labor 
like  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  I 
should  speak  "  in  season  and  out  of  season,  re- 
prove, rebuke,  exhort  with  all  long-suffering."  3 
But  there  are  painful,  difficult  moments  in  my 
ministry ;  moments  in  which  1  am  afflicted  and 
discouraged  at  the  sight  of  the  obstacles  which 
impede  the  success  of  my  labors.  In  those  mo- 
ments I  feel  that  I  need  that  the  Lord  should 
come  to  raise  my  downcast  heart.  But,  what  is 
far  sadder,  when  I  am  covered  by  these  clouds, 
I  cannot  kneel  down  to  invoke  "  Him  who 
giveth  power  to  the  faint,  and  who,  to  them  that 
have  no  might,  increaseth  strength.  Even  the 
youths  shall  faint  and  be  weary,  and  the  young 
men  shall  utterly  fall ;  but  they  that  wait  upon 
the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength ;  they  shall 
mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles ;  they  shall  run, 

1  Acts  18  :  9,  10.  2  2  Tim.  4:  2. 


166  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

and  not  be  weary ;  and  they  shall  walk  and  not 
faint."1  Thus,  since  the  Lord  gives  me  an 
occasion,  by  the  publication  of  my  life,  to  ad- 
dress you,  I  think  it  my  duty  to  expose  my 
wants  to  you,  that  you  may  uphold  me  by  your 
prayers. 

First,  I  am  exposed  to  fearing  the  enemies  of 
the  Gospel,  and  the  persecutors  of  the  disciples 
of  Christ.  My  flesh  is  ready  to  dread  suffering, 
reproach  and  calumny.  You  are  aware,  dear 
brethren,  that  to  this  1  am  daily  subject.  Per- 
haps you  may  have  read,  in  a  public  journal  of 
New  York,  that  one  of  my  fellow-countrymen 
spoke  with  bitterness  against  me  because  of  the 
crime  I  had  committed  in  obeying  Him  who 
says  to  me  :  "  Cry  aloud,  spare  not,  lift  up  thy 
voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  show  my  people  their 
transgressions,  and  the  house  of  Jacob  their 
sins  ;"*  and  in  having  preached  Christ  and  Him 
crucified. 

Secondly,  the  prospect  of  the  difficulty  of  the 
work  of  evangelization  among  my  fellow-coun- 
trymen, may  also  lead  me  to  fear  to  labor  in 
vain,  not  to  be  listened  to,  and  to  be  unable  to 
overcome  all  obstacles.  Such  fear  Moses  felt 

1  Is.  40:  29  31.  2  Is.  58:  1. 


SPANISH    MONK.  167 

when  he  refused  five  times  to  be  the  minister  of 
God  to  Israel,  saying  :  "  Behold,  they  will  not 
believe  me  nor  hearken  unto  my  voice."1 

Thirdly,  Satan  may  induce  me  to  fear  the 
want  of  that  which  is  necessary,  making  me  to 
forget  the  kind  promises  of  the  Lord,  contained 
in  Luke  12 :  12-32.  But  although  I  rely  on 
this  promise  with  regard  to  my  personal  wants, 
another  fear  may  yet  assail  me ;  it  is  this :  I  may 
fear  lest  I  shall  want  that  which  is  necessary  for 
success  in  my  mission,  such  as  Bibles,  religious 
books  and  tracts  printed  in  Spanish.  To  banish 
this  fear,  I  take  the  liberty  to  make  an  appeal  to 
all  those  who  feel  the  danger  in  which  the  thou- 
sands of  descendants  of  Spaniards  who  inhabit  the 
different  countries  of  the  New  World  are  lying. 
My  friends,  I  commend  those  immortal  souls  to 
your  prayers,  and  that  for  the  love  of  Him  who 
makes  no  distinction  of  persons,  and  who  will 
one  day  unite  the  various  nations  in  one.  Yes, 
dear  brethren,  contribute  to  the  support  of  this 
Society,  that  it  may  carry  out  its  plans  of  lead- 
ing out  of  darkness  those  who  belong  to  my  na- 
tion. But,  I  repeat,  let  your  gifts  be  accompa- 
nied by  prayer. 

1  Exodus  4:1. 


163  THE    LIFE    OF    A 

Such,  dear  friends,  are,  in  a  few  words,  my 
wants,  which  claim  the  succor  of  your  prayers. 
Sustained  by  them,  and  by  those  of  Christians  in 
different  countries  of  Europe,  I  will  joyfully  ad- 
vance in  the  path  which  it  may  please  God  to 
point  out  to  me,  and  I  will  say  to  myself  daily — 
I  must  courageously  proclaim  to  my  countrymen 
that  in  his  state  of  sin  every  man  is  lost1  with- 
out Jesus  Christ.     I  must  proclaim  to  them  Je 
sus  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  as  the  only  Saviour, 
the  sole  means  of  reconciliation  with  God  for  us 
all,    who   by  birth    are  His     enemies    in   our 
minds  by  wicked  works.2     I  must  declare  that 
where  there  is  need  of  reconciliation,  there  must 
be  enmity ;  for  friends  have  no  need  of  being 
reconciled.     I  must  speak  to  all  of  that  faith  in 
the  Lord  Jesus,  who  alone  can  make  us  lay  hold 
of  the  gift   of  God,  and  who  alone  can  procure 
peace  for  us  with  the  Father,  and  can  save  us.3 
I  must  show  Spaniards  that  if  they  are  in  Christ, 
they  will  no  longer  be  the  same ;  they  will  be 
new  creatures ;  that  without  that  new  birth  of 
which  the  Saviour  speaks,  and  which  the  Holy 

1  Liike!l9:  10.       »  Col.  1:21.     Rom.  5  :  10.  8 :  7. 
3  Rom.  5:1.  Eph.  S:  8.  Acts  16:  31. 


SPANISH    MONK.  169 

Spirit  produces  in  the  soul,  it  is  impossible  that 
any  man  should  see  the  Kingdom  of  God,  or  en- 
ter into  it.1  "  In  this,  my  dear  countrymen,"  I 
will  say  to  them,  "  consists  the  true  reformation. 
Yes,  it  must  be  effected  in  the  heart,  and  the 
life  become  entirely  new.  This  new  life*  is  the 
necessary  consequence  of  the  new  birth,  which  is 
called  sanctification,  without  which,  it  is  said, 
no  man  shall  see  God."3 

Dear  brethren  and  sisters  in  Christ,  such  is 
the  noble,  sublime,  and  difficult  task  which  God 

alls  me  to  perform  with  reference  to  the  per- 
severing Spanish  mind.  I  acknowledge  that  it  is 
my  duty  to.  fear  nothing,  and  to  proclaim  the 
whole  counsel  of  God.  But  the  Lord  does  not 
leave  me  without  encouragement,  for  he  says  to 
me  :  "  I  am  with  thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on 
thee  to  hurt  thee."  And  leave  me  not  either, 
dear  American  friends,  without  encouragement. 
Pray  much  for  me,  for  my  parents,  for  my  bro- 
thers and  sisters.  Pray  for  Spain  ;  that  peace 
may  return  to  it,  and  that  the  Lord  may  con- 
vert the  rulers  and  subjects,  the  priests  and  the 
flocks.  Pray  for  the  Spaniards  also  who  are  on 

1  John  3:3,5.          •  Rom.  6:4.  '  Heb.  12 :  1.4 

15 


170       THE    LIFE    OF    A    SPANISH    MONK. 

your  own  continent :  that  God  may  make  the  way 
smooth,  and  prepare  the  hearts  to  receive  the 
Word  made  flesh.  For  my  part,  I  will  pray  tor 
you,  and  for  your  nation  :  that  the  Lord  may  bless 
you  spiritually  and  temporally,  and  may  reward 
you  a  hundred-fold  for  your  offerings.  Amen  ' 


THE    END. 


o . 


7( 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  035  584     2 


